LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 


Class 


THE  STORY  OF  PORT  ROYAL 


THE  STORY  OF 
PORT  ROYAL 


BY    ETHEL    ROMANES 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  JOHN  ROMANES," 
"MEDITATIONS  ON  THE  EPISTLE  OF  ST  JAMES,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


or  THE 
•    ((  UNIVLRS 


:RSJTY 

OF 

&U.IF 


NEW  YORK 
E.    P.    BUTTON    AND    COMPANY 

1907 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


E.  G.  R. 

FILIAE    DILECTISSIMAE 

AMICAE    CARISSIMAE 
STUDIORUM    MEORUM 

PARTICIPI    OMNIUM 

NEC   NON   MEMORIAE  G.  J.  R. 

QUI    ANNO    SALUTIS    NOSTRAE    MDCCCXCIV 
IN    CHRISTO   OBDORMIVIT 

HUNC    LIBRUM    DEDICO 


217157 


PREFACE 


IN  writing  this  book,  my  purpose  has  been  to  show 
what  kind  of  people,  what  sort  of  Christians,  were  the 
Port  Royalists.  It  seems  strange  on  reading  what  the 
true  Port  Royalists,  as  Saint  Beuve  would  say,  les  notres, 
write  on  the  things  which  pertain  to  the  Kingdom  of 
God — that  anyone  should  have  ever  charged  them  with, 
or  credited  them  with,  tendencies  to  unsacramental 
religion,  Calvinism,  or  any  heresy  which  the  Church 
has  condemned.  Catholics  they  were  ;  Ultramontanes 
they  were  not. 

Had  the  school  of  thought  of  which  those  who  were 
known  as  the  gens  de  Port  Royal,  ces  Messieurs  de 
Port  Royal,  were  the  exponents ;  had  this  school  of 
thought  been  permitted  to  exist  in  the  French  Church, 
it  is  possible,  nay  probable,  humanly  speaking,  that 
the  fortunes  of  the  Church  of  France  might  have  been 
fairer.  Sons  might  have  been  born  of  her  who  would 
have  leavened  her  with  a  leaven  of  austerity,  of  learn- 
ing, of  devotion  to  Holy  Scripture :  a  more  intelligent 
religious  laity  would  have  arisen,  who  would  have 
shared  in  and  understood  the  Offices,  the  Divine 
Liturgy,  the  whole  work  of  the  Church,  with  more 
intelligent  participation  than  is  general  among  the  rank 
and  file  of  those  who  make  their  first  Communion,  and 
then,  alas,  too  often  drift  away  into  unbelief. 

Small  reason,  indeed,  have  we  of  the  Anglican 
Communion  for  any  boasting,  but  we  have  great 
cause  for  thankfulness  that  our  branch  of  the  Catholic 

vii 

217157 


viii  PREFACE 

Church  has,  up  to  this  time,  been  allowed,  in  the 
Providence  of  God,  to  be  comprehensive  of  so  many 
and  so  divergent  schools  of  thought,  so  that  men  who 
differ  strangely  with  each  other  can  yet  remain  within 
her  borders,  kneel  at  the  same  altar,  and  recite  a 
common  Creed. 

It  would  indeed  be  sad  should  the  lessons  of  his- 
tory be  unheeded  and  this  comprehensive  character 
be  misunderstood ;  so  that,  on  the  one  hand,  those 
who  do  not  hold  apparently  any  article  of  the  Creed 
which  relates  to  the  person  of  Christ  are  welcomed 
and  honoured  and  rewarded ;  and  on  the  other,  those 
who  hold  the  faith,  as  it  has  been  held  by  a  united 
Christendom,  are  reviled,  punished,  and  cast  out. 

Few  of  the  many  sad  stories  of  Christian  history  are 
much  sadder  than  is  the  story  of  Port  Royal.  The 
persecution  of  Port  Royalists  and  the  destruction  of  the 
Abbey  were  as  foolish  as  they  were  criminal. 

But  it  is  ever  to  be  remembered  that  no  suffering  can 
be  really  in  vain,  and  no  seeming  defeat  but  carries  with 
it  an  element  of  victory. 

I  cannot  let  this  book  go  out  into  the  world  without 
some  words  of  gratitude  to  those  friends  without  whose 
generous  help  it  could  never  have  been  written. 

It  is  indeed  a  great  joy  to  thank  the  Rev.  H.  T. 
Morgan,  Vicar  of  S.  Margaret's,  Lincoln,  to  whom  I 
owe  so  much. 

Mr  Morgan,  whose  valuable  collection  of  books  and 
pamphlets  has  lately  been  given  by  him  to  Keble 
College,  Oxford,  gave  me  free  access  to  his  books,  and 
much  advice  and  criticism.  Those  who  know  what 
his  learning  and  judgment  are  will  understand  what 
this  meant  to  a  writer  on  Port  Royal.  I  must  thank 
the  Rev.  Dr  Lock,  Warden  of  Keble  College,  for  his 
kindness  in  giving  me  permission  to  work  in  Keble 
College  Library  after  Mr  Morgan's  books  were  placed 
there. 

To  the  Rev.  H.  Milman,  Librarian  of  Sion  College, 
the  like  thanks  are  due  for  permission  to  use  the 
collection  of  Port  Royal  literature  which  was  collected 


PREFACE  ix 

by  the  late  Mrs  Schimmelpennick,  and  for  allowing 
some  of  the  rare  prints  in  that  collection  to  be  repro- 
duced in  my  book. 

It  is  indeed  a  pleasure  to  express  my  gratitude  to 
my  friend  and  publisher,  Mr  Hallam  Murray,  to  whose 
patience  and  pains  and  artistic  skill  another  of  his 
authors  desires  to  render  heartfelt  thanks. 

To  my  friend,  the  Rev.  Walter  Hobhouse,  Chancellor 
of  the  Cathedral,  Birmingham,  I  owe  true  thanks  for  his 
kindness  in  reading"  the  MS.,  and  for  several  valuable 
suggestions.  And,  lastly,  I  must  thank  her  to  whom 
the  book  is  dedicated,  to  whose  unwearied  patience 
and  learning  and  literary  judgment  I  am  proud  to 
own  myself  greatly  indebted. 

E.  R. 

PlTCALZEAN, 

ROSS-SHIRE,  1907. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGB 

AUTHORITIES           ......  xv 

INTRODUCTION         .          .          .          .          .  xix 

I.  PORT  ROYAL  (1591-1618)     .....  i 

II.  MAUBUISSON  (1618-1623)     .....  29 

III.  MERE  ANGELIQUE  RETURNS  TO  PORT  ROYAL— PERIOD 

OF  M.  DE  LANGRES  (1623-1636)— PORT  ROYAL  DE 
PARIS        .......        53 

IV.  THE  PERIOD  OF  M.  DE  ST  CYRAN  (1636-1638)  .  .       71 
V.  THE  "SOLITAIRES"  (1638) .           .           .           .  .137 

VI.  THE  PORT  ROYAL  DES  CHAMPS  (1638-1648)       .  157 

VII.  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  PORT  ROYAL  (1638-1653)        .  .      170 

VIII.  "LA  FRE"QUENTE  COMMUNION"  (1643)    •  •  .178 

IX.  THE  FRONDE  (1649-1653)    .  .  .  .  .188 

X.  THE  PASCALS  (1623-1654)  .....      202 

XI.  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PERSECUTION — "THE  PROVINCIAL 

LETTERS"  (1652)  ......      224 

XII.  THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  MERE  ANGELIQUE  (1656-1661)       .      250 

XIII.  PASCAL'S  " PENSE"ES "— HIS  DEATH  (1656-1662)   .  .      268 

XIV.  THE  DAYS  OF  TRIBULATION  (1661-1669)  .  .  .      287 

XV.  PERSECUTION  —  MERE     ANGELIQUE     DE     ST     JEAN 

(1663-1669) 308 

XVI.  EVIL  DAYS  (1664-1669) 357 

XVII.  THE  PEACE  OF  THE  CHURCH  (1669)        .  .  .367 

XVIII.  THE  GREAT  LADIES  OF  PORT  ROYAL      .  .  .374 

XIX.  THE  AUTUMN  OF  PORT  ROYAL  (1669-1679)        .  .      409 

XX.  THE  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  PORT  ROYAL  (1679-1713)      430 

NOTES  .  .  .  .  .  .  .481 

INDEX  .......      487 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

ANTOINE  LE  MAISTRE  (Photogravure)        .  .  .    Frontispiece 

VIEW  OF  THE  ABBEY  OF  PORT  ROYAL     .  .  .     To  face  p.  i 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  ALMS  AT  PORT  ROYAL            .           .           „  168 

ANTOINE  ARNAULD  (Photogravure)            .           .           .            „  176 

THE  NUNS  OF  PORT  ROYAL  ATTENDING  ON  THE  SICK           „  200 

PASCAL           ........  204 

L} ADMINISTRATION  DU  SAINT  VIATIQUE                                  „  266 

CONFERENCE  AT  PORT  ROYAL  DES  CHAMPS       .           ,           „  286 

MERE  ANGELIQUE     .....,„  302 

THE  NUNS  OF  PORT  ROYAL  IN  CHAPTER           .           .           „  336 

THE  PLAN  OF  PORT  ROYAL  DES  CHAMPS          .          .          „  408 

MERE  AGNES            .......  410 

"IN  MANUS  TUAS  COMMENDO  SPIRITUM  MEUM"          .          „  452 


xiii 


AUTHORITIES 


SAINTE  BEUVE— Port  Royal,  7  vols. 

BESOIGNE — Histoire  de  VAbbaye  de  Port  Royal. 

DOM  CLEMENCET — Histoire  Generate  de  Port  Royal,  10  vols. 

GuiLBERT — Memoires  Historiques. 

Memoir es  pour  Servir  a  V Histoire  de  Port  Royal,  3  vols. 

Memoires  de  Lancelot,  2  vols.     Cologne. 

Memoires  de  Nicholas  Fontaine,  4  vols. 

Memoires  de  Du  Fosse.     Rouen  Edition,  1879. 

Vies  Interessantes  et  Edifiantes  des  Religieuses  de  Port  Royal,  1750. 
Histoire  des  Persecutions  des  Religieuses  de  Port  Royal.     Edites  par  Elles- 

Memes.     A  Ville  Franche,  1753. 

Relation  de  la  Captivite  de  la  Mere  Angelique  de  St  Jean. 
Journal  de  ce  qui  s>est  passe1 a  Port  Royal,  Juillet  1665,  Fevrier  1669. 
Relation  Contenant  les  Lettres  que  les  Religieuses  de  Port  Royal  ont 
ecrites  pendant  les  dixmois  qtfelles  furentrenfermees sous  I'autorite 
de  la  Mere  Eugenie. 
SAINTE  MARTHE  and  Nicoifc—Apologie  pour  les  Religieuses  de  Port 

Royal,  1665.     In  Four  Parts. 
Necrologie  de  VAbbaye  de  Port  Royal,  I  vol. 

Receuil  de  Pieces  servant  de  Supplement  au  Necrologie.     A  Amsterdam, 
1723. 

Histoire  Abrcgee  de  VAbbaye  de  Port  Royal. 

Les  Gemissements  d'une  Ame  vivement  Touchee  de  la  Destruction  du 
Saint  Monastere  de  Port  Royal. 

Vie  des  Quatre  Eveques,  i  vol. 

Memoires  de  M.  Robert  Arnauld  d*Andilly. 

Lettres  de  M.  de  St  Cyran,  4  vols. 

ST  CvR&K—The'ologte  Familiere,  i  vol. 

Lettres  de  la  Mere  Angelique,  2  vols. 

Entretiens  de  la  Mere  Angelique,  i  vol. 

ED.  FAUGERE — Lettres  de  la  Mere  Agnes,  2  vols. 

Lettres  de  M.  de  Sad,  2  vols. 

Lettres  de  M.  de  Sainte  Marthe,  2  vols. 

Lettres  du  Docteur  Arnauld,  9  vols.     Nancy,  1743. 


xvi  AUTHORITIES 

ANTOINE  ARNAULD — De  la  Frcquente  Communion.  Brussels,  1743. 
Exercices  de  Piete  a  V  Usage  des  Religieuses  de  Port  Royal  au  Desert. 
UOfficeldefEglise  et  de  la  Vierge.  En  Latin  et  en  Franc,  ais.  Avec  les 

Hymnes.     Traduites  en  Vers.     A  Paris. 
L ^  Image  d>une  Religieuse  Parfaite  et  d^une  Imparfaite. 
RACINE — Histoire  Abrcgte  de  Port  Royal. 
f*es  Constitutions  du  Monastere  de  Port  Royal.     Paris,  1721. 
HAMON— Traite  de  Piett. 
LE  TOURNEUX — LAnnde  Chrttienne  ;  De  la  Meilleure  Maniere  a  entendre 

la  Sainte  Messe,  I  vol. ;  Instructions  Chretienne  sur  les  Sacrements. 
NICOLE — Les  Imaginaires  et  les  Visionnaires,  2  vols. 
NICOLE—  Essais  de  Morale. 
NICOLE — Trait^  de  la  Pricre. 
La  Vie  de  M.  Nicole. 

La  Perpetuit^  de  la  Foi  de  VEglise  Catholique  (against  Claude,  3  vols.)« 
"  Logique  de  Port  Royal,"  in  (Euvres  Philosophiques  d'Amauld. 
CADET — L  Education  a  Port  Royal,  i  vol. 
Essais  de  Michel  de  Montaigne. 
DEAN  CHURCH'S  Essay  on  Montaigne. 
ED.  HAVET — Pascal. 
ED.  BRUNSCHVIEG — Pensees  de  Pascal. 
PASCAL — Lettres  ecrites  a  un  Provincial. 
MADAME  P£RIER. — La  Vie  de  Blaise  Pascal. 
VINET — Etudes  sur  Pascal. 
VICTOR.  GIRAUD — Pascal. 
EMILE  BOUTREUX — Pascal. 
COUSIN — Etudes  sur  Pascal 
DEAN  CHURCH,  in  Pascal,  and  other  Sermons. 
FAGUET  in  "  Dix  Septieme  Siecle,"  Etudes  Litteraires. 
Pascal  Amoureux.    Article  by  M.  Faguet  in  La  Revue  Latine,  October 

1904. 

Article  on  Pascal  in  Guardian,  7th  November  1901. 
W.  PATER — "  Pascal,"  in  Miscellaneous  Studies. 
COUSIN — Jacqueline  Pascal. 

TRONCHAI — La  Vie  et  V Esprit  de  M.  de  Tillemont. 
VILLEFOI —  Vie  de  Madame  la  Duchesse  de  Longueville. 
COUSIN — La  Jeunesse  de  Madame  de  Longueville. 
COUSIN — Madame  de  Longueville  pendant  la  Fronde. 
Mrs  A.  COCK — Life  of  Madame  de  Longueville. 
EDOUARD  DE  BARTHEL£MY—  Une  Niece  de  Mazarin. 
Memoires  de  Daniel  de  Cosnac. 
Traite  des  Devoirs  des  Grands,  par  Armand  de   Bourbon  Prince  de 

Conti. 

COUSIN — Madame  de  Sable. 
GUSTAVE  LARROUMET — Racine. 
Memoires  de  Madame  de  Motteville. 
Mtmoires  de  M.  VAbbe  Arnauld. 
Memoires  du  Cardinal  de  Retz. 


AUTHORITIES  xvii 

Memoires  de  Mademoiselle  de  Montpensier, 

BARINE — La  Jeunesse  de  la  Grande  Mademoiselle. 

Memoires  du  Due  de  St  Simon. 

Lettres  de  Madame  de  Sevigne. 

GUETTE — Histoire  de  VEglise  de  France.    Vols.  x.  and  xi. 

HENRI  MARTIN— Histoire  de  France. 

ERNEST  LAVISSE— Histoire  de  France.    Tome  sixieme. 

DEAN  KITCHIN — History  of  France. 

WAKEMAN— The  Ascendancy  of  France. 

Essays  in  Kenan's  Nouvelles  Etudes  Religieuses. 

Dr  DOLLINGER'S  Essays  on  the  Policy  of  Louis  XIV.  and  on  Madame 

de  Maintenon. 

Essay  in  Stephen's  Essays  on  Ecclesiastical  Biography. 
BEARD'S  Port  Royal. 
LEON  SACH£— Port  Royal  des  Champs. 
LANCELOT— A  Tour  to  A  let  and  La  Grande  Chartreuse.    (Translation  by 

Mrs  Schimmelpennick.) 
Rtglement  donnepar  la  Duchesse  de  Liancourt  a  la  Princesse  de  Marsilliac, 

avec  une  Notice  par  la  Marquise  de  Forbin  d^Oppede. 
Historiettes  de  Tallemant  des  Rtaux. 
MARSOLLIER— La  Vie  de  la  Mere  de  Chantal. 
MARSOLLIER —  Vie  de  St  Franqois  de  Sales. 
Entretiens  de  St  Francois  de  Sales. 

Mrs  SIDNEY  LEAR— The  Revival  of  Priestly  Life  in  France. 
Rev.  C.  BIGG,  D.D.— The  Christian  Platonists  of  Alexandria. 
MASON—  The  Faith  of  the  Gospel. 
BISHOP  OF  HLxETER—Kegnum  Dei. 
BISHOP  OF  BIRMINGHAM— The  Body  of  Christ. 


INTRODUCTION 


PORT  ROYAL — "Qui  ne  connait  pas  Port  Royal  ne 
connait  pas  Thumanite,"  said  M.  Royer-Collard  to  Port 
Royal's  great  historian,  Sainte  Beuve. 

And  this  magnificent  hyperbole  seems  amply  justified 
to  the  lovers  of  Port  Royal. 

For  that  which  is  known  as  the  Port  Royalist 
movement  represents  a  real  spiritual  awakening-  in  the 
French  Church,  a  great  effort  for  righteousness,  for 
spiritual  religion,  for  a  certain  degree  of  independence 
of  thought  and  action. 

Thanks  to  the  hatred  of  the  Jesuits,  to  the  selfish, 
narrow,  jealous  policy  of  Louis  XIV.,  this  movement 
was  crushed. 

But  perhaps  also,  as  we  shall  see,  something  in  the 
Port  Royal  movement  itself,  some  spirit  of  controversy, 
and  of  bitterness,  and  of  zeal,  not  so  much  for  truth  as 
for  their  own  aspect  of  truth,  which  grew  up  in  the  later 
days,  checked  the  upward  growth,  and  enabled  persecu- 
tion to  do  its  work.  Yet,  although,  as  Sainte  Beuve 
says,  "11s  croient  que  Port  Royal  est  un  commence- 
ment ;  tandis  que  c'etait  trop  manifestement  une  fin," 
although  the  very  name  of  Port  Royal  was  blotted  out, 
although  their  enemies  destroyed  them  and  made  them 
a  reproach,  their  work,  their  sufferings,  their  endurance, 
stand  out  endued  with  the  immortality  which  is  the 
privilege  of  those  who  have  dared  to  make  great 
ventures  of  faith,  who  have  stood  before  kings  and 
not  been  ashamed,  who  have  counted  all  things  as 
nothing  in  comparison  with  truth. 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

Renan  says,  and  it  is  a  true  and  noble  word :  "  For 
after  all  it  is  the  battle,  it  is  the  struggle  that  is  valuable 
more  than  that  for  which  we  struggle."1  No  words  can 
better  describe  the  interest  of  the  story  of  Port  Royal. 

Around  the  monastery  is  grouped  a  number  of 
persons  who  set  themselves  resolutely  to  build  up 
spiritual  religion ;  to  bring  back  holiness,  devotion,  and 
a  clear  understanding  of  the  need  of  the  grace  of  God, 
the  need  of  Jesus  Christ.  Sainte  Beuve's  Discours 
Pre'liminaire  should  be  read  by  all  who  wish  to  under- 
stand the  position  of  the  true  Port  Royalists. 

And  the  story  centres  round  one  religious  establish- 
ment, for,  roughly  speaking,  one  century,  and  round 
one  family.  The  Arnaulds  with  their  friends  and 
connections,  were  Port  Royal.  Many  great  names 
other  than  Arnauld  are  clustered  round  Port  Royal, 
but  they  are  all  connected  in  some  way  with  that 
wonderful  household,  through  friendship  or  the  ties  of 
blood. 

Before  the  Arnaulds  took  possession,  so  to  speak,  of 
Port  Royal,  the  history  of  that  religious  house  has 
practically  no  interest.  After  Angelique  Arnauld,  the 
great  Abbess,  as  a  tiny  child  of  nine,  is  installed  at 
Port  Royal  in  1602,  the  story  becomes  one  of  the  most 
interesting  and  heartrending  of  the  many  heroic  epics 
of  human  struggle,  and  tears  and  heartbreaks,  of  the 
many  Acta  Sanctorum  of  the  centuries  since  the  King 
of  Saints  bequeathed  to  His  followers  the  legacy  of  the 
Cross,  the  privilege  of  drinking  of  His  cup  and  of  being 
baptized  with  His  baptism. 

We  will  therefore  begin  our  story  with  the  Arnauld 
family,  only  noting  that  Port  Royal  was  a  religious 
house  founded  in  1 204  by  Mathilde  de  Guirlande,  wife 
of  Matthieu  de  Montmorenci  Marli,  on  the  site  of 
an  ancient  chapel  dedicated  to  St  Laurence.  In  old 
charters  the  name  is  Porrois.  Port  Royal  owes  the 
name  to  the  legend  that  Philip  Augustus  while  hunting 
lost  his  way,  and  was  found  at  a  small  chapel  in  a  valley, 
on  which  site  he  resolved  to  build  a  monastery.  This, 

1  Kenan's  Etudes  Religieuses. 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

however,  is  manifestly  a  myth,  and  Port  Royal's  founders 
were  undoubtedly  Mathilde  de  Guirlande  aided  by  Eudes 
de  Sully,  the  Bishop  of  Paris. 

The  monastery  was  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Abbots  of  Citeaux.  Citeaux  (Lat.  Cistercium],  near 
Dijon,  was  chosen  by  St  Robert,  1099,  for  the  site  of  a 
monastery.  He  and  some  monks  had  left  Cluny  in  the 
hopes  of  leading  a  stricter  life,  and  one  more  conformed 
to  the  rule  of  St  Benedict.  Robert  first  settled  near 
the  borders  of  Champagne,  at  Molesme,  and  after  a 
while,  seeing  that  the  new  convent  was  well  started,  St 
Robert  and  six  other  monks  travelled  to  what  was  then 
a  wilderness — Citeaux,  and  founded  a  new  settlement 
of  monks,  who  became  known  for  their  holy  lives  and 
the  excessive  austerity  with  which  they  carried  out  their 
rule. 

To  them  in  1113  came  the  great  St  Bernard,  and  he 
in  time  let  out  a  band  to  establish  themselves  in  the 
place  for  ever  connected  with  his  name— Clairvaux. 

The  rule  of  the  Cistercians  was  that  of  St  Benedict ; 
they  were,  in  fact,  Reformed  Benedictines.1 

Port  Royal  was  built  in  a  valley  near  the  town  of 
Chevreuse,  eighteen  miles  to  the  west  of  Paris,  and 
seems  to  have  been  a  somewhat  desolate  spot.  Madame 
de  Sevigne  once  described  it  as  "un  vallon  affreux  tout 
propre  a  inspirer  le  gout  de  faire  son  salut."  But  we 
know  that  the  eighteenth  century,  in  France  and 
England  alike,  loved  a  smiling  country;  the  charm  of 
gloomy  or  stern  landscapes  was  yet  to  be  discovered. 

M.  Lemaitre's  beautiful  words  may  well  be  quoted. 
He  says  in  his  Discours,  Racine  et  Port  Royal : — 

"Cette  vallee  de  Port  Royal  est  un  des  coins  de  la 
France  les  plus  august es,  les  plus  impregnes  d'ame. 
C'est  une  terre  sacree.  .  .  . 

"  La  ont  medite  et  prie  les  ames  les  plus  profondes, 
les! plus  repliees  sur  elles-m ernes,  les  plus  obsedees  par  le 
mystere  de  leur  destinee  spirituelle." 

It  must  be  remembered  that   Port  Royal  and  all 

1  See  Histoire  de  Sainte  Bernard  et  de  son  Siccle,  par  R.  P.  Theodore 
Ratisbonne. 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

who  can  be  called  Port  Royalists  represent  to  us  a 
struggle  for  a  higher  faith,  a  true  moral  standard ;  and 
that  they  were  in  no  sense  heretics.  As  has  been  rightly 
said,  the  Port  Royalists  protested  against  misunder- 
standings of  their  teaching,  and  never  held  the  doctrine 
of  so-called  Jansenism,  a  doctrine  which  is  as  absurd 
as  it  is  heretical.  If  Jesuits  protest  against  inter- 
pretations of  their  teaching  which  seem  to  accuse 
them  of  something  very  like  Pelagianism,  certainly 
Port  Royalists  may  protest  against  accusations  of 
Calvinism. 

Certainly  the  great  book  by  Arnauld  and  Nicole  on 
the  Eucharist  ought  to  have  settled  the  Catholicity  of 
Port  Royal. 

The  words  which  Signor  Forgazzaro  puts  into  the 
mouth  of  his  "Santo"  express  the  principle  for  which 
Port  Royal  suffered.  .  .  .  "Questo  difettodi  corraggio 
morale  e  una  piaga  della  Chiesa.  Piuttosto  che  mettersi 
in  conflitto  con  i  Superiori  ci  si  mette  in  conflitto  con 
Dio.  E  si  crede  di  sfuggire  a  questo  sostituendo  alia 
propria  coscienza  dove  Dio  parla,  la  coscienza  dei 
Superiori.  .  .  .  Non  s'intende  che  il  debito  verso  Dio  e 
il  debito  verso  i  Superiori  si  possono  compiere  insieme 
non  operando  mai  contre  il  Bene,  non  astenendosi 
mai  da  operare  contro  il  Male,  ma  senza  giudicare  i 
Superiori,  ma  obbedendo  loro  con  perfetta  obbedienza 
In  tutto  che  non  e  contro  il  Bene  o  a  favore  del  Male, 
deponendo  ai  loro  piedi  la  propria  vita  stessa,  solo  non 
la  coscienza  ;  la  coscienza.  Mai !  " 

Could  anything  better  sum  up  what  was  meant  by 
Port  Royal  resistance ;  everything  could  be  yielded,  but 
to  refuse  to  listen  to  the  final  voice  of  Conscience, 
never ! 


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OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY 

OF 


PORT    ROYAL 

CHAPTER  I 

EARLY  DAYS   (l59I-l6l8) 

THE  Arnauld  family  existed  in  Provence  as  far  back  as 
the  twelfth  century.  Mention  is  made  of  one  of  them 
in  1 195.  The  family  subsequently  settled  in  Auvergne, 
and  the  great-grandfather  of  Mere  Angelique  was 
ruined  by  his  devotion  to  the  Constable  de  Bourbon, 
who  had  renounced  his  country  and  his  honour,  and 
had  deserted  from  Francis  I.  to  Charles  V.,  King  of 
Spain,  1523.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Constable 
de  Bourbon,  "le  dernier  des  grands  vassaux,"  as  Henri 
Martin  calls  him,  had  conspired  against  Francis  I.  with 
Charles  V.,  and  indirectly  with  Henry  VIII.  of  England. 
Francis  I.  was  warned,  Bourbon  fled. 

The  characteristics  which  belong:  to  the  race  of 
Auvergne  are  certainly  found  in  the  Arnauld  family  as  it 
appeared  in  the  seventeenth  century :  strength,  astute- 
ness, chivalry,  religious  devotion,  and  above  all,  up- 
rightness. 

The  first  Arnauld  who  settled  in  Paris  was  Antoine 
de  la  Mothe1  Arnauld,  son  of  that  Henri  who  sheltered 
the  Constable  de  Bourbon  in  his  escape.2  He  held  the 
office  of  Procureur  General  (which  may  be  defined  as 
Public  Prosecutor)  under  Catharine  de'  Medici,  and,  as 

1  La  Mothe,  a  castle  near  Riom. 

2  He  held  the  office  of  Grand  Ecuyer  to  the  Constable,  and  it  is  said 
he  facilitated  the  escape  by  having  the  fugitive's  horses  shod  backwards. 

1  A 


2  EAELY   DAYS 

was  not  unnatural  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century  and  in  a  country  desolated  by  "the  Wars  of 
Religion,"  he  was  alternately  a  man  of  war  and  a  man 
of  law.  As  his  grandson,  M.  Robert  d'Andilly 
(brother  of  Mere  Angelique),  apologetically  remarks, 
"  M.  de  la  Mothe  was  drawn  by  the  devices  of  the  devil 
into  the  errors  of  the  Reformation,  but  he  had  no 
sooner  realised  the  poison  concealed  under  the 
semblance  of  religion  than  he  at  once  renounced  his 
errors  and  lived  and  died  in  the  purity  of  the  Catholic 
Faith." 

M.  de  la  Mothe  had  every  opportunity  of  seeing 
how  unwholesome  the  Huguenot  belief  was,  as  he  just 
escaped  with  his  life  at  the  Massacre  of  St  Barthol- 
omew. Catharine  de'  Medici  had  no  wish  to  lose  a 
valuable  servant,  and  sent  an  officer  and  some  of  her 
private  guards  to  get  him  out  of  his  house,  which  was 
being  besieged  by  the  murderers  and  was  being 
defended  by  M.  de  la  Mothe  with  true  Arnauld  courage. 
He  was  rescued  and  concealed  until  the  massacre  was 
over.  It  is  needless  to  remark  that  the  Jesuits  never 
forgot  this  temporary  lapse  into  heresy  on  the  part  of 
the  ancestor  of  the  hated  Antoine  Arnauld. 

M.  de  la  Mothe  married  twice,  and  became  the 
father  of  thirteen  children.  He  died  in  1585.  His 
eldest  son,  the  only  son  of  his  first  marriage,  Jean  de 
la  Mothe,  was  a  distinguished  soldier,  attached  to  the 
Royal  cause,  and  to  Henri  III.  against  the  House  of 
Guise.  He  fell  fighting  in  Auvergne  against  the 
League.  M.  d'Andilly  relates  how  M.  de  la  Mothe 
and  twenty-four  men  had  defended  a  town  until  their 
ammunition  had  given  out,  and  how  he  then  sur- 
rendered to  save  his  men's  lives,  but  having  seen  his 
soldiers  march  out,  he  threw  himself  sword  in  hand 
amongst  the  enemy,  declaring,  "  La  Mothe  will  not  owe 
his  life  to  the  League." 

The  eldest  of  the  children  of  the  second  marriage 
was  Antoine,  the  great  lawyer,  the  father  of  Mere 
Angelique  and  of  "tous  les  notres  de  Port  Royal,"  as 
M.  de  Sainte  Beuve  says.  He  succeeded  to  his 


M.   AENAULD  3 

father's  office  of  Procureur  General,  and  in  all  respects 
he  seems  to  have  been  an  excellent  specimen  of  the 
"Gens  de  la  Robe."  He  was  eloquent  and  learned  in 
the  learning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  his  discourses 
read  quaintly  enough,  with  their  appeals  to  precedents 
extending-  backwards  as  far  as  the  Iliad  and  to  old 
writers  of  Roman  law,  great  and  small. 

M.  Arnauld  owed  his  wife  to  his  eloquence.  M. 
Marion,  an  illustrious  lawyer,  "avocat  general  du  Roi, 
dont  le  nom  est  si  connu  dans  toute  la  France,"  heard 
the  young  lawyer  plead,  and  very  soon  bestowed  on 
him  his  only  daughter  Catherine.  She  brought  to 
her  husband  the  estate  of  Andilly  (from  which  her 
eldest  son  Robert  always  bore  the  name  of  M. 
dAndilly),  and  also  a  number  of  desirable  connec- 
tions, whom  M.  d' Andilly  dutifully  recounts. 

M.  Marion  was  also  eloquent,  and  it  was  said, 
"  M.  Marion  est  le  premier  du  Palais  qui  ait  bien 
ecrit " ;  as  the  great  historian  of  Port  Royal  says,  this 
was  a  good  omen  for  the  strong  masculine  healthy  style 
which  was  to  characterise  the  Arnaulds  descended  from 
the  Marions. 

M.  Marion  was  not  quite  so  devout  as  M.  Arnauld, 
and  did  not  escape  the  reproach  of  being  slightly  un- 
orthodox ;  he  certainly  felt  no  qualms  concerning  the 
rather  questionable  arrangements  made  by  him  and  by 
M.  Arnauld  for  the  establishment  of  his  two  grand- 
daughters, to  be  known  hereafter  as  Mere  Angelique 
and  Mere  Agnes. 

It  seems  odd  that  this  very  worldly  and  astute  old 
lawyer  should  have  been  the  means  of  paving  the  way 
for  as  pure  and  as  unworldly  a  reform  as  the  world  has 
ever  seen.  Not  the  worst  enemies  of  Port  Royal  could 
accuse  it  of  over-much  care  for  the  rich,  or  for  the  great 
ones  of  the  earth. 

From  all  one  hears  of  Catherine  Arnauld,  one  feels 
that  she  must  have  been  a  sweet,  good,  and  devout 
woman,  an  excellent  wife  and  mother ;  she  married, 
poor  little  bride,  at  the  mature  age  of  twelve,  her 
bridegroom  being  twenty-five.  Their  marriage  seems 


4  EAELY  DAYS 

to  have  been  a  very  happy  one.  There  was  growing 
prosperity  and  much  Court  favour.  M.  Arnauld  was 
strongly  attached  to  Henri  IV. 

The  home  life  seems  to  have  been  very  happy.  M. 
Arnauld  was  a  tender  father,  and  M.  Marion  the  ideal 
grandfather  of  the  patriarchal  type.  (He  died  in  1610.) 
Family  affection  was  very  strong  in  the  Arnaulds,  as  we 
shall  see  again  and  again. 

Of  the  twenty  children  borne  by  Catherine,  ten  died 
in  childhood.  The  survivors  were :  the  eldest,  Robert, 
born  in  1589,  of  whom  we  shall  have  much  to  say; 
Catherine,  afterwards  Mme.  Le  Maitre,  born  in  1590; 
the  famous  Jacqueline  Marie,  known  in  Religion  as 
Angelique ;  two  years  later,  Jeanne  Catherine  Agnes, 
our  dear  and  lovable  Mere  Agnes ;  Anne  Eugenie, 
afterwards  a  nun  at  Port  Royal;  Henri,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Angers ;  Marie  de  St  Claire,  a  nun  of  Port 
Royal;  Simon,  who  was  killed  at  Verdun  in  1639; 
Madeleine,  afterwards  a  nun  at  Port  Royal ;  and  last, 
but  certainly  not  least,  Antoine,  born  1612,  the  great 
Arnauld,  as  he  is  emphatically  named. 

Robert,  known  in  later  life  as  M.  d'Andilly,  has  left 
us  a  pleasing  account  of  the  relations  which  existed 
between  his  father  and  himself.  He  says  that  they  had 
no  secrets  from  each  other,  and  that  God  had  used  his 
father  to  inspire  him  with  the  wish  to  do  right.1 

The  chief  legal  event  of  M.  Arnauld's  life  was  un- 
doubtedly that  which  was  wittily  termed  "le  peche 
original  des  Arnaulds,"  an  attack  on  the  Jesuits  in 
consequence  of  the  attempted  assassination  of  Henri 
IV.  The  University  of  Paris  by  M.  Arnauld's  mouth 
pleaded  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  "qui  n'en 
aimoient  pas  mieux  ces  Messieurs  de  P.  Royal,"  as 
was  remarked.  It  was  a  wonderful  burst  of  denuncia- 
tion, and  was  neither  forgotten  nor  forgiven. 

The  young  Arnaulds  had  seven  uncles  on  their 
father's  side,  all  more  or  less  distinguished,  for  one 
or  two  of  whom  M.  d'Andilly  seems  to  have  felt  a 
special  affection.  The  youngest,  Pierre,  was  a  really 

1  Memoires  d'Andilly ',  i.,  p.  316. 


THE  AENAULD   FAMILY  5 

distinguished  soldier,  known  as  M.  Arnauld  du  Fort.1 
M.  Sainte  Beuve  says  of  him  :  "  He  is  a  true  specimen 
of  the  Arnauld  family  in  its  unconverted  state,  brave, 
audacious,  dashing,  and  rather  brutal."  Pierre  shared 
the  fatality  which,  as  M.  dAndilly  says,  attended  the 
whole  Arnauld  family.  They  always  just  came  short 
of  any  complete  worldly  success.  M.  du  Fort  died  in 
1624,  during-  the  siege  of  La  Rochelle,  when  he  was 
on  the  point  of  becoming  a  Marshal  of  France.  He 
had  formed  a  scheme  for  taking  the  town,  which 
he  communicated  to  Louis  XIII.;  this  scheme  was 
frustrated  by  the  jealousy  of  a  rival,  and  Arnauld's 
fatal  illness  was  brought  on  by  disappointment  and 
fatigue.  Another  brother  of  M.  Antoine  Arnauld, 
Isaac,  became  "  Intendant  des  Finances"2  in  1605  ;  for 
him  Robert  dAndilly  had  a  great  affection. 

The  family  of  M.  Arnauld  (les  notres)  was  large, 
and  both  M.  Marion  and  M.  Arnauld  felt  it  desirable 
to  make  provision  for  some  of  the  numerous  daughters. 
It  was  usual  in  French  families  that  one  or  more  of  the 
girls  should  be  dedicated  to  the  cloister  from  babyhood, 
if  with  vocation  so  much  the  better,  but  with  or  without 
vocation,  dedicated.  The  second  and  third  daughters, 
Jacqueline  Marie  (Angelique),  born  1591,  and  Jeanne 
Catherine  de  Sainte  Agnes,  born  1593,  were  thus 
devoted,  and  to  all  outward  appearance  poor  little 
Angelique  was  not  in  the  least  disposed  to  "enter 
Religion." 

Agnes,  known  in  the  world  as  Jeanne,  was  contented 
to  become  a  nun,  but  not  an  Abbess  ;  Angelique,  on 
the  other  hand,  finding  that  her  grandfather,  of  whom 
she  was  very  fond,  had  set  his  heart  on  establishing  her 
in  the  cloister,  said  resignedly  :  "  Very  well — only  I  must 

1  He  was  so  named  from  Fort  St  Louis,  an  outwork  erected  by  him 
against  La  Rochelle. 

2  The  Intendants  were  financial  agents,  especially  concerned  with  the 
raising  of  the  "  Taille  "  or  property  tax.     Richelieu  appointed  Intendants 
in  every  province  in  1637,  in  whose  hands  the  whole  political,  financial 
and  police  administration  was    placed. — See  Wakeman,  Ascendancy  of 
France •,  p.  157. 


6  EARLY  DAYS 

be  an  Abbess" ;  and  a  little  while  after,  "I'll  make  my 
nuns  do  their  duty." 

M.  Marion  had  contrived  to  persuade  the  good- 
natured,  not  over-scrupulous  King1  Henri  to  grant 
him  the  succession  to  two  Abbeys  for  the  two  little 
grand-daughters — Port  Royal  for  the  elder,  and  St  Cyr 
for  little  Agnes. 

The  Abbess  of  Port  Royal  at  that  time  was  Jeanne 
de  Boulehart.  She  made  no  objection  to  the  reception 
of  the  little  Jacqueline  (Angelique)  as  a  coadjutor 
Abbess ;  indeed  we  are  told  that  the  good  Jeanne  in  a 
spirit  of  prophecy  exclaimed  to  her  nuns,  "You  don't 
know  what  an  excellent  arrangement  I  have  made  for 
you  to-day." 

Angelique  said  that  there  were  three  abuses  in  the 
way  in  which  she  had  been  established  at  Port  Royal. 

The  first  was  her  grandfather's  (M.  Marion's)  ambi- 
tion to  have  two  of  his  grand-daughters  Abbesses. 

The  second  was  that  she  was  professed  as  Abbess  at 
eleven,  in  defiance  of  Church  rules. 

The  third  was  the  deceit  practised  on  the  Pope ;  it 
was  falsely  stated  that  she  was  seventeen  years  old. 

Angelique  also  blames  the  then  Superior,  the  Abbot 
of  Citeaux,  in  that  he  assented  to  these  plans. 

As  for  St  Cyr,  a  certain  nun  was  to  hold  it  until 
Jeanne  (Agnes)  was  old  enough. 

The  little  girls  were  clothed  as  novices  in  1 599  and 
1 600  respectively,  having  arrived  at  the  mature  ages  of 
nine  and  eight.  The  two  little  novices  were  brought  up 
together  at  St  Cyr,  and  quarrelled  and  played  much  like 
ordinary  children.  Jacqueline,  however,  was  soon 
removed  to  the  Abbey  of  Maubuisson  to  be  educated. 
On  Michaelmas  Day,  1600,  she  was  confirmed,  and 
took  the  name,  one  day  to  become  so  famous,  of 
Angelique.  The  reason  for  this  change  was  that 
difficulties  had  been  made  at  Rome  about  granting  Bulls 
to  so  youthful  an  Abbess ;  and  a  change  of  name  was 
thought  advisable  on  renewing  the  request.  She  was 
solemnly  professed  as  a  religious  in  October,  1 600. 

For  the  present  we  may  say  that  Maubuisson  was  a 


ANG^LIQUE'S   PROFESSION  7 

fair  example  of  the  worst  side  of  the  decay  of  Religous 
Life.  Port  Royal  represented  the  cold,  worldly,  but 
decorous  religious  house.  Maubuisson,  on  the  other 
hand,  presented  the  sight  of  a  scandalous  and  corrupt 
establishment. 

Into  this  scene  strangely  enough  our  little  Angelique 
was  plunged.  Madame  D'Estrees,  the  Abbess,  was  the 
sister  of  the  famous  Gabrielle  D'Estrees,  and  had  been 
foisted  on  Maubuisson  simply  to  gratify  Gabrielle. 
Henri  IV.  played  a  mean  trick  on  the  then  Abbess,  who 
had  been  elected  on  account  of  her  purity  and  goodness. 
The  King  paid  her  a  surprise  visit,  learned  that  the 
election  had  not  been  confirmed,  and  left  the  unsus- 
picious Superior  in  the  complete  conviction  that  her  late 
Royal  guest  was  minded  to  confirm  her  election,  from 
which  pleasant  dream  she  was  rudely  roused  ;  the  King 
obtained  a  Bull  from  Rome,  bestowed  the  place  on 
Madame  D'Estrees,  on  which  the  poor  Abbess  hastened 
back  to  her  original  Convent.  The  King  promptly  held 
a  Chapter  of  the  unfortunate  nuns,  who  of  course  had 
but  one  choice.  Madame  D'Estrees  was  worthy  of  her 
Royal  patron  and  of  her  sister. 

Angelique  always  regarded  her  Profession  as  valid 
and  binding.  In  early  years,  great  as  was  her  desire,  for 
some  time,  to  break  with  her  Religious  Life,  she  was 
always  restrained,  partly,  no  doubt,  by  the  warm  affection 
she  had  for  her  parents,  but  partly  by  a  strong  feeling  that 
her  vows  had  been  made  before  God  and  were  irrevo- 
cable. She  said,  many  years  afterwards,  to  her  brother 
Antoine  Arnauld  :  "  Once  I  had  taken  my  vows  when  I 
was  nine,  I  could  never  get  it  out  of  my  head  that  I  was 
obliged  in  conscience  to  have  no  other  spouse  than  Jesus 
Christ.  For  I  regarded  this  vow,  not  as  a  gift  which  I 
had  made  to  Him,  and  which  I  was  not  yet  capable  to  give, 
on  account  of  my  age,  but  as  an  extreme  honour  which  He 
had  done  me  to  take  me  as  His  daughter  and  His  bride, 
and  I  considered  that  I  should  indeed  deserve  reproof  if  I 
withdrew  from  so  honourable  an  estate.  But  in  spite  of 
all  this  I  did  not  live  like  a  true  religious,  for  I  was  not 
converted  until  I  was  seventeen." 


8  EARLY  DAYS 

Angelique  remained  about  two  years  in  Maubuisson, 
of  which  Convent  we  shall  have  much  to  say  later  on. 
In  1602  Madame  de  Boulehart,  Abbess  of  Port  Royal, 
died,  and  her  young  coadjutor  Abbess,  who  was  then 
eleven  years  old,  returned  to  her  Convent  and  was 
warmly  welcomed  by  her  nuns. 

M.  de  la  Croix,  head  of  the  Cistercian  Order,  under 
whose  jurisdiction  the  Abbey  had  been  placed  from  its 
foundation,  solemnly  professed  the  new  Abbess,  as 
Abbess,  on  Michaelmas  Day,  1602.  She  made  on  that 
day  her  first  Communion. 

For  this,  the  most  solemn  day  of  a  youthful  life,  there 
appears  to  have  been  absolutely  no  preparation.  Some 
one  slipped  into  Angelique's  hands  a  little  book  of 
devotion,  which  she  read  with  great  attention,  and  she 
speaks  of  that  day  as  one  on  which  she  did  realise  the 
presence  of  God. 

We  in  England  are  sometimes  shocked  at  the 
accounts  of  the  hasty  preparation,  or  the  entire  lack  of 
preparation,  bestowed  on  candidates  for  Confirmation 
in  former  generations.  Our  brethren  of  another 
Communion  do  not  seem  to  have  fared  much  better 
at  times ;  coldness  and  absence  of  spiritual  ideals  were 
not  confined  to  the  English  Church. 

Poor  little  Abbess!  She  was  compelled  to  assume 
the  duties  of  her  office,  and  she  had  already  received 
into  the  novitiate  a  girl  of  seventeen,  who  became  one 
of  the  two  to  whom  she  opened  her  heart  on  the  projects 
of  reform,  when  those  projects  had  ripened.  The  same 
nun  (Catherine  de  St  Paul)  gave  much  information 
about  these  early  days  to  Angelique  de  St  Jean,  who 
compiled  the  Mtmoires  pour  servir  a  fhistoire  de  Port 
Royal. 

For  some  years  the  life  at  Port  Royal  went  on  in  the 
old  routine  :  calm,  respectable,  a  little  dull,  perhaps,  and 
certainly  with  no  over-abundance  of  religious  zeal. 
Agnes,  who  was  at  St  Cyr,  often  paid  visits  to  her 
sister  ;  at  that  particular  period  of  their  lives  the  younger 
sister  showed  more  fervour  than  did  Ang6lique.  When 
she  was  nine,  she  knew  the  Psalter  by  heart,  and  she 


SYMPTOMS  OF   "ACCEDIA"  9 

was  already  careful  to  say  the  Offices  at  the  right  time. 
Angelique  was  by  no  means  so  exact.  As  far  as  pos- 
sible she  varied  the  monotony  by  reading-  Plutarch. 
(Plutarch  was  much  in  vogue  then  both  in  England 
and  France,  and  romances  of  the  kind  which  had  so 
strongly  influenced  Shakespeare  and  other  writers,  for 
the  seventeenth  century  was  the  age  in  which  story- 
telling came  into  fashion.) 

She  also  paid  and  received  as  many  visits  as  she 
possibly  could,  and  the  pious  soul  of  her  mother  was 
a  good  deal  exercised  by  the  free  and  easy  and  alto- 
gether unconventual  life  of  the  poor  young  Abbess. 
Her  mother  feared  greatly  that  Angelique  might  be  led 
into  indiscretions,  by  no  means  uncommon  in  those 
days.  And  indeed  the  life  of  the  young  Abbess  was 
extraordinarily  free,  and  one  can  quite  understand 
Mme.  Arnauld's  fears. 

But  Angelique's  temptations  were  not  of  the  sort 
which  could  lead  to  any  sort  of  scandal,  and  the  Abbot 
of  Citeaux  was  quite  satisfied  when  he  made  a  visitation 
of  the  Convent  in  1605.  Port  Royal  was  pre-eminently 
at  that  time  a  home  of  peace  and  quiet.  Offices  were 
said  more  or  less  punctually,  and  "convenable"  amuse- 
ments, chiefly  games  of  cards  and  walks  abroad,  filled 
up  the  calm,  uneventful  days.  A  delightful  life  for  an 
old  lady  of  sixty,  but  for  a  healthy  girl  of  fourteen  what 
an  existence!  It  is  not  wonderful  that  Angelique  fell  a 
prey  to  what,  when  one  reads  about  it  in  the  Mdmoires, 
looks  extremely  like  the  particular  disease  of  monas- 
teries, "accedia."  She  herself  says  that  she  only 
enjoyed  playing,  chattering,  amusing  herself,  and  that 
she  was  vexed  to  see  that  her  elder  sister  Catherine 
(who  used  to  pay  visits  to  Port  Royal  before  her 
marriage)  was  more  devout  than  the  Abbess  herself. 

The  Religious  Life  grew  daily  more  distasteful ;  she 
entered  into  correspondence  with  some  Huguenot  aunts 
(we  remember  that  M.  Arnauld  the  grandfather  of 
"les  notres"  had  in  a  temporary  aberration  embraced 
the  Reformed  Religion,  and  had  found  in  the  St 
Bartholomew  a  complete  cure  and  antidote  for  the 


10  EAELY  DAYS 

poison  of  heresy).  She  had  even  some  idea  of  taking 
refuge  at  La  Rochelle,  which  was  as  yet  the  Huguenot 
' 'City  of  Refuge." 

She  fell  ill  in  1607,  and  her  father  and  mother  carried 
her  off  to  their  home  in  Paris.  Here,  the  atmosphere 
of  home  restored  her  mental  balance,  as  far  as  any 
inclination  to  the  "  Religion"1  was  involved;  but  the 
pleasant  comings  and  goings  in  her  home,  the  uncles 
who  were  in  the  midst  of  all  the  excitement  and  interests 
of  the  life  at  Court,  the  intercourse  with  "mondaines," 
the  intoxicating  air  of  Paris,  doubled  the  longings  for 
a  life  in  the  world,  a  life  of  action  and  enjoyment.  The 
revolt  was  so  natural,  so  healthy ;  it  indicated  the 
strength  as  yet  stored  up  and  lying  dormant  in  the 
future  Mere  Angelique! 

She  would  not  have  been  the  great  woman  she  became 
had  she  not  known  what  it  is  to  renounce  the  world. 
A  little  feminine  touch  is  naively  related  in  the  Mtmoires 
— that  our  dear  young  Abbess  contrived  to  get  hold  of 
and  wore  a  corset  for  some  little  time,  in  order  to 
improve  her  youthful  figure ! 

M.  Arnauld  found  out  that  at  sixteen  Angelique 
was  not  yet  the  devout  or  even  the  resigned  religious 
that  he  wished  her  to  become.  As  we  shall  see  later, 
he  did  not  want  any  extremes  of  piety,  but  he  did  want 
his  daughter  to  accept  the  provision  he  had  obtained 
for  her.  M.  Arnauld  is  an  excellent  type  of  the  "make- 
the-best-of-both-worlds  sort  of  Christian,"  at  least  in 
this  period  of  his  life ;  as  M.  Sainte  Beuve  says  in  one 
of  his  inimitable  phrases,  both  M.  Arnauld  and  his 
father-in-law  were  "  Chretiens,  mais  des  Chretiens 
selon  le  monde ;  et  le  monde,  sauf  les  modes  et  les 
apparences,  se  retrouve  toujours  et  parle  un  peu  le 
meme."  As  he  was  slightly  distrustful  of  his  daughter's 
frame  of  mind,  and  as  he  knew  perfectly  well  that  she 
could,  if  she  would,  return  to  the  world,  M.  Arnauld 
insisted  one  day  on  Angelique's  signing  a  paper  without 
reading  it,  which  she  did,  her  heart  swelling  with 

1  Term  always  applied  to  the  Reformed  Faith  in  France  by 
Huguenots. 


ANG^LIQUE'S   CONVERSION  11 

rebellion.  It  was  a  ratification  of  her  vows.  Little  did 
he  know  to  what  he  was  devoting-  her. 

She  speaks  with  extreme  tenderness  of  her  mother's 
care  for  her  at  this  time.  But  Angdique  returned 
after  her  illness  to  her  Convent,  still  somewhat  of 
an  invalid.  The  winter  of  1607  passed  away,  and 
the  Lent  of  1608  drew  on,  the  Lent  which  was  to 
change  her  whole  life.  The  child  of  sixteen,  who 
was  in  germ  already  a  saint,  who  was  already 
showing  by  her  obedience  and  submission  the  pos- 
sibilities of  saintliness  to  be  hereafter  developed, 
languidly  asked  for  a  book  of  devotions,  and  a  simple 
little  book  was  put  into  her  hands  which  seemed  to 
have  comforted  her. 

At  last  the  day  of  awakening  arrived.  A  Capuchin 
monk,  who  was  by  no  means  a  saintly  person,  arrived 
one  day  in  March  and  asked  permission  to  preach. 
That  sermon  struck  an  answering  note  in  the  young 
Abbess's  heart.  She  says  herself  in  touching  words : 
"God  spoke  to  me,  and  from  that  instant  I  realised  the 
blessedness  of  the  Religious  Life.  My  happiness  in  it 
was  in  proportion  to  my  former  unhappiness." 

It  is  very  striking  and  suggestive  to  note  by  what 
apparently  unworthy  instruments  Angelique  was  brought 
to  the  life  of  complete  self-surrender.  Her  father  forced 
her,  from  worldly  motives,  to  a  life  which  affords 
possibilities  of  as  great  happiness  or  of  as  great  misery 
as  does  the  vocation  of  marriage.  The  monk  who 
awoke  her  slumbering  soul  was  a  bad  man,  who 
afterwards  abandoned  his  religious  profession.  In  all 
ages  souls  who  are  destined  for  great  vocations  are 
often  drawn  upwards  in  strange  and  contradictory 
ways. 

Now  began  a  period  of  fervour,  and,  as  was  only 
natural,  of  uneasiness.  The  life  of  a  religious  ought  to 
be  one  of  austerity,  of  obedience  to  rule,  of  poverty. 
Where  was  the  mark  of  the  Cross  on  Port  Royal  ? 

Angelique  was  a  true  convert.  She  sought  to  reform 
herself,  and  with  as  little  outward  help  as  any  fervent 
youthful  disciple  ever  received,  she  began  those  inward 


12  EAELY   DAYS 

struggles,  those  stern  dealings  with  herself  which  distin- 
guish most  learners  in  the  school  of  the  Cross. 

And  there  was  the  shrinking  from  observation,  the 
shyness,  which  are  so  characteristic  of  holy  souls  in  their 
first  beginnings.  She  used  to  get  up  at  night  and  steal 
to  a  barn  that  she  might  pray  alone.  "  I  began  to  feel 
also,"  she  says,  "a  passionate  horror  for  my  own  office, 
for  the  authority  with  which  I  had  been  invested ;  I 
longed  to  leave  it."  Angelique  wras  much  shocked  at 
the  time  by  reading  in  a  book  of  casuistry  that  an 
Abbess  could  use  a  third  part  of  the  revenues  of  the 
Abbey  for  her  own  private  pleasure.  She  longed  to  enter 
some  other  order,  and  become  a  lay  sister,  to  take  the 
lowest  place,  rather  than  to  reform  her  own  convent. 

At  Whitsuntide,  a  certain  Pere  Bernard,  another 
Capuchin  monk,  dissuaded  her  from  leaving.  She 
confided  to  him  her  desire  to  reform  Port  Royal,  and 
the  good  Father  much  preferred  that  the  young  Abbess 
should  stay  where  she  was,  and  proceeded  to  preach  a 
discourse  sufficiently  severe  to  alarm  the  nuns,  who 
thought  that,  as  they  led  a  decorous  life,  and  dis- 
charged their  religious  duties  with  regularity  (and  also 
with  a  due  regard  to  convenience,  Matins  being  said 
at  4  P.M.,  not  A.M.),  they  had  no  need  for  this  sort  of 
plain  speaking. 

Pere  Bernard,  in  all  the  zeal  of  a  new  reformer, 
hastened  to  inform  the  authorities  at  Citeaux ;  this 
was  extremely  simple  of  him,  for  the  then  Abbot  was 
given  rather  to  relaxing  the  rule  than  to  enforcing  it. 

It  was  notified  to  M.  Arnauld  that  Angelique  had 
become  inconveniently  religious.  He  hastened  to  Port 
Royal  and  found  her  unwell  and  sad.  He  told  her  with 
an  amusing  naivett  that  he  would  not  stand  Capuchin 
monks  in  his  Monastery,  and  strongly  objected  to  any 
unrestrained  display  of  religious  zeal. 

He  carried  her  off  to  his  country  house,  but  this 
year  was  very  different  from  the  last.  One  idea  alone 
possessed  the  ardent  loyal  soul — the  passionate  wish 
to  put  God's  service  first.  As  is  very  often  the  case  in 
a  true  vocation,  the  words  were  fulfilled,  "a  man's  foes 


• 


CONVEESION   OF   THE  COMMUNITY    13 

shall  be  they  of  his  own  household."  As  she  herself 
says,  she  was  dedicated  to  the  Religious  Life  without 
any  choice;  and  when  God  in  His  mercy  had  bestowed 
on  her  a  true  vocation,  her  own  people  did  their 
uttermost  to  prevent  her  from  leading  the  life  of  a 
religious. 

Back  to  Port  Royal  she  returned,  not  knowing  what 
to  do,  how  to  reconcile  her  duty  and  her  affection.  All 
Saints'  Day  came,  and  with  it  came  another  religious ; 
not  a  Capuchin  monk,  but  one  selected  by  the  authori- 
ties at  Citeaux  themselves.  He  preached  from  the 
Gospel  of  the  day,  on  the  seventh  Beatitude.  A  girl  who 
waited  on  the  Abbess,  and  who  afterwards  became  a 
nun,  said  to  her  quite  simply:  "You  might  be  one  of 
the  blessed  who  are  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake." 
The  words  went  home  like  a  dart.  Advent  came,  and 
with  it  Angelique  took  her  next  decisive  step.  She 
made  a  general  confession  to  this  same  monk,  who 
was  known  afterwards  as  the  Abbe  Vauclair.  He 
confirmed  her  in  her  resolutions,  and  her  promise — 
made  as  before  God — to  live  the  life  of  a  true 
religious. 

But  what  between  attacks  of  ague  and  religious 
struggles,  Angelique  brought  herself  to  such  a  pass 
that  the  Prioress,  who  was  next  in  authority  to  her- 
self, came  to  her  and  implored  her  to  say  what  was 
grieving  her.  "Madam,"  said  the  Prioress,  "if  you 
will  only  tell  us  what  we  are  to  do,  we  will  do  it ;  any- 
thing to  make  you  happy." 

Angelique  took  the  good  Prioress  at  her  word.  The 
first  thing  to  do  was  to  restore  the  practice  of  having 
all  things  in  common ;  in  fact,  to  keep  the  vow  of 
poverty.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  young  Abbess  for  the 
true  Religious  Life  had  kindled  something  of  a  like 
spirit  in  the  others,  and  everything  was  brought  into 
he  common  stock. 

There  is  a  quaint  little  story  of  one  aged  nun  who 
could  not  bring  herself  to  sacrifice  a  little  garden  which 
she  had  acquired,  and  which  she  kept  pretty  well  to 
herself.  For  some  time  she  held  out,  but  at  last  she 


14  EAELY  DAYS 

yielded,  and  sent  the  key  of  her  garden,  much  in 
the  spirit  of  one  who  surrenders  the  last  tower  of 
a  besieged  fortress  —  it  was  indeed  the  key  of  her 
heart. 

Angelique  herself  practised  all  sorts  of  austeri- 
ties, slightly  absurd  ones,  but  as  she  said  in  after 
years,  "Que  voulez  vous  ?  tout  £toit  bon  en  ce 
terns-la." 

Somehow  or  other  the  news  of  the  girl  Abbess  of 
seventeen  who  had  begun  the  work  of  reforming  her 
Monastery  was  noised  abroad  in  the  neighbouring 
Religious  Houses,  the  inmates  of  which  naturally  took 
a  good  deal  of  interest  in  one  another's  affairs ;  and 
two  nuns,  fired  with  the  desire  of  becoming  Mere 
Angelique's  children,  obtained  permission  to  leave  their 
own  Convent  and  enter  Port  Royal. 

But  there  was  another  point  to  be  gained ;  and  this 
time  the  fight  was  harder,  for  it  was  not  with  nuns,  all 
more  or  less  ready  to  yield,  and  some  of  whom 
were  already  devoted  to  the  Abbess,  but  it  was 
with  her  father,  the  astute  man  of  law,  whose  strong 
will  would  be  surely  able  to  overpower  the  girlish 
reformer. 

Seclusion,  that  is,  absolute  withdrawal  from  the 
world,  such  was  the  Port  Royal  rule,  in  common  with 
other  Religious  Houses.  The  rule  might  be  incon- 
venient, or  harsh,  or  unnatural,  but  it  was  the  rule ; 
and  the  question  was,  Would  Angelique  be  able  to 
convince  her  father  and  her  family,  who  regarded  Port 
Royal  as  the  peculiar  property  of  the  Arnaulds,  that 
the  rule  must  be  obeyed  even  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
relations  of  the  Abbess  ? 

M.  Arnauld  had  forced  his  daughter  into  a  life 
which  involved  a  very  real  forsaking  of  her  father's 
house.  He  had  completely  forgotten  the  original  pur- 
pose and  the  ideal  of  the  Religious  Life ;  he  had  pro- 
faned that  ideal  by  compelling  two  children  to  take  vows 
at  an  age  when  they  knew  nothing  of  what  they  were 
forsaking.  Angdique  disconcerted  him  by  taking 
her  vows  seriously,  by  making  the  discovery  that 


OPPOSITION  15 

Christians  often  make — that  words  have  meanings, 
and  that  the  world,  even  in  its  most  amiable  guise,  is 
at  the  last  the  enemy  of  the  Christian.  The  resistance 
Angelique  offered  was  right.  Her  own  father  had 
given  her  to  the  cloister  just  as  he  might  have  given 
her  in  marriage.  She  was  compelled  to  resist  her 
nearest  and  dearest  if  she  would  live  a  life  of  truth, 
not  a  living  lie.  This  devotion  to  truth  is  perhaps 
that  which  characterises  all  Port  Royalists.  Austere, 
they  were  uncompromising,  perhaps  a  little  harsh  and 
hard,  but  always  with  their  eyes  on  Truth,  their  hearts 
fixed  on  the  Eternal.  "  Para  turn  cor  meum,  Deus," 
they  might  have  said. 

Of  course,  for  those  who  consider  that  the  "  Religious 
Life  " l  has  no  place  in  the  Church,  and  that  there  are  no 
calls  to  " forsake  all"  Mere  Angelique,  and  all  other 
religious,  are  merely  mistaken  and  unfortunate  people. 
But  the  revival  of  the  Religious  Life  in  all  its  forms 
in  our  branch  of  the  Church,  and  also  of  the  percep- 
tion that,  whether  in  the  world  or  in  the  cloister,  God 
must  come  first,  which  is  experienced  in  our  own  and 
in  other  branches  of  the  Church  of  God,  is  among  the 
great  marks  of  life  which,  amid  all  the  storms  of 
controversy,  gladden  the  hearts  of  those  who  "pray 
for  the  peace  of  Jerusalem." 

But,  to  return  :  Angelique  knew  that  the  crisis  must 
come.  It  is,  by  the  way,  amusing  to  note  that  M. 
Arnauld,  who  was  doing  his  best  to  get  Angelique's 
election  properly  confirmed  at  Rome,  sent  in  an  account 
of  the  reform  which  his  daughter  was  establishing  at 
Port  Royal:  "ce  cher"  M.  Arnauld — he  had  a  very 
large  share  of  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent. 

But  the  "  Parlement " 2  of  Paris  was  about  to  suspend 
its  sittings ;  M.  Arnauld  would  be  able  to  resume  his 
visits  to  the  Abbey. 

1  This  phrase  is  merely  used  for  convenience  sake. 

2  It  is  scarcely  needful  to  remind  our  readers  that  the  Parlement  was 
"a  court  of  law,  which  had  grown  into  a  corporation  of  lawyers  and 
judges,  and  which  claimed  an  indirect  veto  on  the  Royal  legislation." 
— Wakeman,  Ascendancy  of  France,  p.  5. 


16  EAELY  DAYS 

Already  Angelique  had  told  her  Community  that 
from  henceforth  the  "parlour"  of  the  Convent  would 
alone  be  available  for  visitors,  and  this  regulation  was 
carried  out  at  the  "Clothing"  of  a  novice. 

As  the  day  drew  near  when  Angelique  might  reason- 
ably expect  a  visit,  she  wrote  either  to  her  mother  or  to 
her  elder  sister  (it  is  a  little  uncertain  which),  and  told 
simply  but  resolutely  of  her  intention.  No  one  ventured, 
at  first,  to  speak  of  this  to  M.  Arnauld.  Probably  they 
felt  as  if  a  dove  had  flown  in  their  faces.  Whether 
M.  Arnauld  was  told  or  not  is  not  quite  clear,  but  at  any 
rate  a  visit  was  arranged,  and  a  large  family  party  set 
out  to  Port  Royal,  consisting  of  M.  and  Mme.  Arnauld, 
the  eldest  son,  known  as  M.  d'Andilly,  Mme.  Le  Maitre, 
the  eldest  daughter,  and  the  young  sister  Anne. 

At  Port  Royal  were  not  only  Angelique,  but  her 
sister  Agnes,  whom  she  had  brought  to  Port  Royal 
from  St  Cyr ;  also  a  little  sister  of  nine  years,  Marie 
Claire. 

This  was  the  famous  Journee  du  Guichet,  a  day  which, 
as  M.  Sainte  Beuve  says,  was  a  mixture  of  tragedy  and 
comedy,  and  which  was  assuredly  a  day  much  to  be 
remembered  in  the  annals  of  Port  Royal.  Angelique 
hearing  that  her  troublesome  family  were  expected, 
took  care  to  get  the  keys  of  the  Abbey  into  her  own 
possession,  and  then  retired  to  church  to  pray.  The 
little  shrinking  girl  with  the  great  bunch  of  keys, 
knelt  in  the  church,  her  heart  palpitating  at  every 
sound — truly  a  heroic  soul  was  held  in  the  youthful 
frame. 

It  seems,  perhaps,  a  storm  in  a  tea  cup,  but  it  was  a 
memorable  day,  that  Journee  du  Guichet  (Day  of  the 
Convent  Wicket),  for  Angelique  was  after  all  fighting 
for  a  principle,  for  that  principle  which  is  always  being 
combated  by  the  world,  the  principle  which  underlies 
all  religious  life — that,  at  the  last,  God  and  not  man  is 
to  be  obeyed. 

And  one  must  remember  that  parental  authority  in 
France  at  that  time  was  simply  despotic.  The  fathers 
in  Moliere's  plays,  for  instance,  are  generally  unpleasing 


"JOUBNtiE  DU   GUICHET"  17 

individuals  with  the  rights  of  ancient  Roman  fathers 
over  their  unfortunate  offspring-.  M.  Arnauld  was  a 
most  kind  and,  for  that  age,  indulgent  father,  but 
neither  he  nor  his  wife  had  had  the  faintest  notion 
of  any  curtailment  of  their  parental  authority  over 
Angelique.  The  struggle  was  not  in  the  least  like  the 
mutiny  of  a  daughter  of  the  present  day  who  obtains  a 
reluctant  consent  to  a  career  or  a  course  of  life  which 
appears  more  or  less  eccentric  in  her  parents'  eyes.  At 
any  rate  she  will  probably  be  sure  of  a  good  deal  of 
sympathy  from  her  "world."  Angelique  knew  that  the 
chances  were  that,  even  by  the  religious  world,  her 
conduct  would  be  stigmatised  as  that  of  a  "  parri- 
cide"— always  considered  the  worst  of  criminals  in 
France. 

And  there  was  the  elder  brother  Robert,  who  was  his 
father's  specially  beloved  son,  clever,  prosperous,  getting 
on  well  at  Court  (he  held  a  post  under  the  uncle  who 
was  "  Intendant  des  Finances") ;  he  had  been  carefully 
educated,  chiefly  at  home,  and  had  always  been  from 
boyhood  in  the  society  of  men  of  affairs  and  in  a  Court 
atmosphere.  \Ve  shall  see  much  of  M.  d'Andilly ;  on 
this  famous  "Journee  du  Guichet"  he  is  simply  the 
clever,  prosperous,  young  man  of  the  world,  who  will 
stand  no  nonsense  from  his  womankind. 

And  so  the  family  party  proceeded  on  their  long 
drive,  and  in  due  time  reached  Port  Royal.  Perhaps  a 
little  excitement  was  felt  by  the  mother  and  the  gentle, 
the  worse  than  widowed,  sister  Catherine  : *  Angelique 
— would  she  really  carry  out  her  threats?  Probably 
M.  Arnauld  had  no  uneasiness. 

The  party  arrived  and  alighted.  The  great  gate 
was  shut,  the  grille  was  drawn  back,  and  the  poor  little 
Abbess  appeared,  no  doubt  pale  with  fright.  She 
implored  her  father  to  come  into  a  small  room  at  the 
side  of  the  door — outside  the  precincts,  where  she  could 
speak  to  him. 

M.  Sainte  Beuve  gives  an  inimitable  account  of  this 

1  Catherine  had  been  married  to  a  certain  M.  Le  Maitre,  from  whom 
after  some  years  of  unhappiness  she  was  legally  separated. 

B 


f: 


18  EAELY  DAYS 

memorable  day.  M.  Arnauld  was  rudely  awakened 
from  his  dream,  and  for  a  few  moments  the  Furies  were 
let  loose.  No  epithet  which  French  wit  and  French 
parental  wrath  could  suggest  was  spared ;  the  instant 
surrender  of  the  two  girls  Agnes  and  little  Marie  Claire 
was  demanded  and  quickly  granted  ;  they  were  sent  out 
by  a  door  leading  out  of  the  church,  and  were  amongst 
the  besiegers  before  their  presence  was  perceived. 
Agnes,  whom  we  have  known  as  a  devout,  serious, 
ardent  child,  who  never  apparently  cast  backward 
longings  to  the  world,  added  fuel  to  the  fire.  The 
father  launched  into  fresh  invectives  when  he  saw  her, 
and  the  grave  young  daughter  said  with  unbroken 
calmness  and  with  great  respect,  that  all  that  Angelique 
had  done  was  of  necessity,  and  had  been  ordered  by  the 
Council  of  Trent.  This  utterance  of  the  "  Daniel  come 
to  judgment"  provoked  M.  Robert  intensely.  "This  is 
a  nice  state  of  things,"  he  gasped,  "Council,  Canons, 
indeed ! "  it  was  indeed  insufferable  of  a  young  sister  to 
be  so  entirely  in  the  right. 

Things  were  at  a  deadlock.  The  poor  sisters, 
Catherine  and  Anne,  who  were  probably  on  Ang£lique's 
side,  stood  apart  in  agony.  M.  Arnauld  calmed  himself 
and  regained  his  dignity.  He  ordered  the  horses  to  be 
put  in  his  carriage,  addressed  a  few  words  of  farewell, 
and  consented  to  go  into  the  permitted  room.  There 
he  implored  Angelique  to  have  some  regard  for  her 
health,  and  proceeded  to  say  a  final  good-bye.  This 
was  too  much.  The  sense  of  family  affection  and  family 
ties,  always  so  intensely  felt  in  France,  and  by  no  family 
more  than  the  Arnaulds,  rushed  over  Angelique.  She 
had  had  a  frightful  struggle,  and  some  victories  cost 
more  than  defeats.  She  fainted  away,  and  in  one 
moment  all  was  changed.  The  distracted  father 
thought  she  was  dead,  and  called  on  the  nuns  to  come 
and  attend  to  their  poor  little  Abbess.  But  they  had 
fled  like  rabbits  to  their  burrows,  and  it  was  some  time 
before  any  one  of  them  dared  to  put  her  nose  out ! 

But  at  last  they  came,  and  when  Ang6lique  opened 
her  eyes,  her  first  words  were  to  implore  her  father  not 


RECONCILIATION  19 

to  go  away.  The  Abbess  was  carried  off  to  her  room  to 
recover,  a  couch  was  prepared  in  the  parlour,  and  to  it 
she  was  borne.  There  a  full  reconciliation  took  place. 
Certainly  the  Arnaulds  were  excessively  amenable  to 
conviction.  M.  Arnauld  appears  to  have  seen  that  this 
was  no  girlish  freak,  no  childish  enthusiasm  ;  but  it  is 
amusing  to  note  how  the  whole  family  turned  on  the 
unlucky  preacher  who,  by  his  sermon  on  All  Saints'  Day 
and  his  subsequent  exhortation,  had  led  on  Angelique  to 
her  present  attitude. 

M.  Arnauld  and  M.  Robert  d  Andilly  fell  on  him  and 
rent  him — metaphorically — and  M.  Arnauld,  observ- 
ing that  he  was  young  for  a  Director,  soon  contrived 
that  the  Visitor  and  Superior,  the  Abbot  of  Citeaux, 
should  withdraw  the  too  zealous  monk. 

Peace  was  restored  ;  the  Arnauld  family  agreed  that 
Angelique's  scruples  should  be  respected  and  that  things 
should  be  put  in  order. 

It  was  arranged  that  M.  Arnauld  should  visit  the 
monastery  to  superintend  the  outside  buildings,  without 
coming  into  what  were  known  as  "des  lieux  reguliers  "  ; 
and  in  time  Mme.  Arnauld  and  her  daughters  came  and 
went  with  tolerable  freedom,  no  doubt  complying  with 
the  rules  of  a  Religious  House. 

Mme.  Arnauld  was  extremely  miserable  for  some 
time :  she,  in  her  first  burst  of  anger,  had  spoken  un- 
advisedly with  her  lips  and  rashly  vowed  never  to  go  near 
Port  Royal  again.  But  a  sermon  on  rash  oaths  which 
she  heard  eleven  months  afterwards  relieved  the  poor 
mother,  and  she  set  off  immediately  after  dinner  for 
Port  Royal. 

The  Arnauld  family  came  out  exceedingly  well  from 
this  "  Journee  du  Guichet."  The  father,  mother,  children, 
were  after  the  first  storm  of  anger  perfectly  able  to  see 
from  Angelique's  point  of  view — no  doubt  from  that 
day  they  began  to  rise  above  the  level  of  the  religion  of 
a  "  Chretien  selon  le  monde  ; "  one  can  trace  the  growth 
of  religion  in  each  of  them. 

And  Angelique  was  willing  to  meet  her  father  on 
every  point  where  she  could  do  so  without  compromising 


20  EAELY   DAYS 

her  rule.  For,  what  she  was  fighting  for  was  simply  the 
rescue  of  the  Religious  Life.  If  people  are  to  be  called 
to  this  Life  at  all,  let  it  be  a  genuine  call,  Angelique 
always  said  ;  and  before  she  could  do  anything  she  must 
once  and  for  all  prevent  her  Convent  from  being 
regarded  by  herself  and  her  family  as  a  pleasant  and 
secure  provision  for  herself  and  such  members  of  the 
house  as  chose  to  avail  themselves  of  it.  After  all,  she 
had  a  great  responsibility  laid  on  her ;  she  was,  sorely 
against  her  will,  the  Head  of  a  Religious  House,  respon- 
sible to  God. 

When  obedience  could  be  rightly  practised  she  had 
practised  it,  but  when  what  she  conceived  a  higher 
duty  called  her,  she  saw  her  duty.  She  chose.  Of  her 
surely  we  can  say : 

"  Thou,  patient  thus,  could'st  rise  from  law  to  law, 
The  old  to  the  new,  promoted  at  one  cry 
O'  the  trump  of  God  to  the  new  Service,  not 
To  longer  bear,  but  henceforth  fight,  be  found 
Sublime  in  new  impatience  with  the  foe  ! 
Endure  man,  and  obey  God." l 

It  was  not  indeed  a  sharp  trial  crowned  by  the  glory 
of  an  earthly  death,  but  it  was  a  life-long  martyrdom  on 
which  Angelique  entered  on  the  "  Journee  du  Guichet," 
and  those  splendid  lines  seem  to  describe  the  attitude 
of  at  any  rate  the  earliest  and  the  noblest  of  the  Port 
Royalists. 

Things  went  on  peacefully  for  a  time — Angelique 
trod  the  path  of  the  Religious  Life  fearlessly  and 
happily.  She  embraced  the  vow  of  poverty,  resolving 
no  longer  to  avail  herself  of  her  father's  purse,  and 
bearing  all  hardships  with  joy. 

That  longing  to  surfer  which  so  often  falls  on  elect 
souls  in  the  first  joy  of  conversion  was  hers ;  she  was 
to  drink  to  its  dregs  the  cup  of  suffering — in  later  years 
God  led  her  by  paths  of  pain. 

And  her  own  nuns  followed  her  lead ;  all  went  well. 
Only  there  was  a  sore  lack  of  spiritual  guidance. 

1  The  Ring  and  the  Book.     "  The  Pope,"  lines  1055-60. 


THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  THE  REFORM  21 

"  Indeed  that  want  was  sorely  felt  in  those  early  days 
of  reviving"  religion." 

In  a  few  years  a  great  change  came  over  France. 
St  Fran9ois  de  Sales  and  many  others  were  to  work 
wonderful  things,  but  as  yet  it  was  only  the  beginning 
of  reform.1  The  agony  of  the  Religious  Wars,  the 
absolute  degradation  of  the  Catholic  clergy  were  not 
so  very  distant.  The  great  Henri  IV.  was  not  con- 
spicuous for  devotion. 

But  Charles  de  Condren,  the  Cardinal  de  Berulle, 
and  Jean  Jacques  Olier  were  to  bring  about  the  great 
revival  of  priestly  life  so  closely  associated  with  the 
Oratorians.  St  Vincent  de  Paul  was  soon  to  do  his 
great  work,  but  as  yet  there  was  much  ignorance,  much 
coldness,  much  need  for  a  fresh  stirring  of  the  dry 
bones.  Still,  although  the  ideal  director  had  not  yet 
appeared,  Angelique  was  fortunate  in  the  priest  who 
replaced  the  Father  whom  M.  Arnauld  had  so  soundly 
rated  on  the  "  Journee  du  Guichet." 

A  certain  Pere  Archang'e,  a  Capuchin,  took  the 
charge  of  Port  Royal.  He  was  English  ;  he  is  said  to 
have  belonged  to  the  Pembroke  family,  and  was  an 
exile  for  his  religion.  There  is  something  peculiarly 
attractive  about  "ce  Pere  Pacifique."  He  was,  one 
remembers  with  pleasure,  probably  a  kinsman  in  some 
degree  of  our  own  George  Herbert.  He  drew  the 
Arnauld  family  closer  to  one  another ;  his  advice  to 
Angelique  was  that  her  duty  to  her  parents  was  to  be 
second  only  to  her  duty  to  her  God.  "La  religion  ne 
detruit  pas  le  droit  naturel,  ains  le  raffine,  le  confirme 
et  1'accroit."2 

Some  years  later,  one  of  the  Port  Royal  nuns  says 
of  Mere  Angelique  :  "  I  have  always  perceived  in  her  a 
marvellous  insight  in  judging  of  things  said  to  her  (in 
sermons,  spiritual  counsel)  and  power  of  separating 
good  from  evil,  and  I  don't  think  anyone  ever  took 
her  in." 

1  For  a  good  account  of  this  in  brief,  see  The  Revival  of  Priestly  Life 
in  France  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  by  Mrs  Sidney  Lear. 

2  Des  Lettres  manuscrites,  quoted  by  Sainte  Beuve. 


22  EARLY   DAYS 

Pere  Archange  belongs,  as  M.  Sainte  Beuve  remarks, 
to  the  same  spiritual  family  as  St  Frangois  de  Sales. 
He  had  the  admirable  common  sense  on  which  we 
English  pride  ourselves. 

With  Pere  Archange  were  associated  two  others, 
M.  Gallot  and  Pere  Eustache  de  Saint  Paul,  a  friend 
of  M.  Arnauld. 

A  little  group  of  sisters  was  now  established  at  Port 
Royal  —  Angelique,  Agnes,  Marie  Claire,  and  later 
Anne  Eugenie. 

Anne  was  a  bright,  clever  girl,  with  no  apparent 
vocation ;  in  her  early  years,  indeed,  she  had  moments 
of  attraction  towards  the  Reformed  Religion.  She 
loved  reading  romances,  and  society.  But  at  nineteen 
she  fell  ill,  and  vowed  fervently  to  devote  herself  to 
God,  in  whichever  religion  pleased  Him  best.  Shortly 
afterwards,  on  her  recovery,  she  felt  great  leanings 
towards  the  Religious  Life,  and  underwent  some  of 
those  experiences  of  which  so  many  ardent  souls,  St 
Theresa,  St  Catherine  of  Siena,  for  instance,  furnish 
examples,  of  that  mysterious  upward  drawing  which 
causes  them  to  speak  of  things  unspeakable. 

She  too  had  the  Vision  of  a  Heavenly  Bridegroom, 
and  to  that  Vision  she  was  not  disobedient.  Very  soon 
afterwards  she  was  able  to  speak  to  Pere  Eustache 
and  to  surprise  him  by  her  vehemence.  He  spoke  to 
her  of  earthly  bridegrooms,  but  she  replied  that  she 
must  have  a  greater  Lord  than  any  earthly  prince. 
Anne  shared  to  the  full  the  courage  and  the  pride  of 
her  race.  Her  mother  was  surprised,  and  her  father 
by  no  means  wished  all  his  children  to  quit  him  for 
the  cloister.  Poor  M.  Arnauld,  he  had  made  two  of 
his  daughters  into  Abbesses ;  he  was  punished  by  all 
the  remaining  ones  becoming  nuns. 

Anne  spent  a  year  in  the  world  after  the 
memorable  interview  with  Pere  Eustache.  The 
Arnauld  family,  though  not  exactly  noble,  was 
highly  respected,  and  several  members  held  offices 
about  the  Court.  Robert  d'Andilly  indeed  spent  most 
of  his  life  there,  and  although  the  Court  in  1616  was 


ANNE  EUGENIE  23 

by  no  means  the  brilliant  and  attractive  place  that  it 
became  later  on,  yet  there  was  some  gaiety.  Anne, 
for  instance,  was  privileged  to  see  a  Court  ballet, 
Louis  XIII.  had  just  married  his  beautiful  bride,  Anne 
of  Austria ;  the  favourites  of  the  Queen  Regent,  the 
Concini,  soon  to  fall  miserably,  were  in  power ;  the 
Prince  of  Conde"  was  passing  weary  hours  in  the 
Bastille.  In  a  very  short  time  all  this  was  to  change. 
On  the  30th  November,  1616,  Richelieu  embarked 
for  the  first  time  on  his  career  of  political  life,  and  very 
soon  the  miserable  vacillations  of  a  weak  government 
were  changed  into  that  unshrinking  and  unwavering 
policy  which  will  never  be  forgotten. 

Louis  XIII.  was  about  to  enter  abruptly  on 
the  scene  and  assert  himself  by  the  destruction  of 
the  favourites  of  his  mother,  and  the  exile  of  that 
mother. 

But  our  Port  Royalists  do  not  as  yet  touch  the  history 
of  France,  or  attract  the  notice  of  those  in  high  places. 
Anne  entered  Port  Royal  on  the  i7th  of  October,  1616, 
and  was  fully  professed  in  1 6 1 8. 

Anne  brought  with  her  the  atmosphere  of  ecstatic 
joy,  of  high  aspirations,  of  mystic  devotion.  Agnes 
shared  all  these  ;  Mere  Angelique  was  rather  distrustful 
of  "  visions."  Anne  found  a  great  happiness  in  the 
daily  tasks  assigned  to  her.  "Above  all  things,  I 
liked  sweeping,"  she  said,  "remembering  how  St 
Theresa  liked  that  occupation." 

Anne's  novitiate  was  not  without  its  trials.  The 
loneliness  of  the  place,  the  swamps,  the  aguish  attacks 
which  seem  to  have  never  been  absent  from  the  Abbey, 
all  depressed  her.  The  first  beginnings  of  entire  sub- 
mission and  self-denial  oppressed  her. 

She  has  told  us  herself  how  at  first  the  sense  of 
loneliness  overcame  her  and  how  Agnes  comforted 
her,  and  the  emptiness  of  her  soul  was  filled.  She  felt 
as  one,  far  removed  from  her  by  country,  by  circum- 
stances, but  like  to  her  in  the  thirst  for  God,  had 
felt — "a  vacuum  in  the  soul  which  nothing  can  fill 
save  faith  in  God."  For  Anne  had  to  struggle  with 


24  EAELY   DAYS 

doubt,  of  what  kind  we  know  not,  but  from  time  to 
time  in  the  long  years  she  spent  in  Port  Royal  she 
had  these  spiritual  trials  and  temptations  which  come 
to  elect  souls,  and  which  for  the  most  part  must  be 
faced  and  fought  alone  with  God,  however  much  aid 
may  be  given  by  spiritual  guides  and  by  spiritual  com- 
panions. Anne  was  greatly  helped  in  later  years  by 
one  of  whom  there  will  be  much  to  say,  M.  de  St  Cyran. 

Anne  felt  at  times,  however,  much  spiritual  joy. 
"Sometimes  when  I  was  alone  I  danced  for  joy  at 
the  thought  that  I  was  a  religious,  and  sometimes 
when  I  saw  a  nun  looking  sad,  I  thought  she  need 
only  look  at  her  black  veil  and  then  she  would  cease 
to  be  sad."  And  she  goes  on  to  say  that  she  continued 
to  feel  happy  even  during  attacks  of  ague  and  fever. 

It  was  on  the  day  in  1618  when  Anne  was  pro- 
fessed that  the  order  came  to  Mere  Angelique  to 
set  out  and  try  to  reform  the  notorious  Abbey  of 
Maubuisson.  She  was  to  depart  with  the  Superior, 
the  Abbot  of  Citeaux,  who  had  come  to  profess 
Anne. 

The  Port  Royal  sisters  were  plunged  into  frantic 
grief,  but  Anne  could  only  smile  and  say,  "  Dieu  me  fit 
trop  de  graces  hier  pour  pleurer  aujourdhui." 

With  the  call  of  Mere  Angelique  to  reform  Maubuis- 
son closes  the  first  period  of  our  history.  Angelique 
is  still  young  in  1618,  but  she  returned  to  Port  Royal 
a  middle-aged  woman  with  much  experience  of  sorrow 
and  of  the  sin  of  the  world. 

Everything  up  to  this  time  in  Port  Royal  had  been 
done  simply  and  solely  for  the  one  end — God's  glory. 
Agnes  had  already  joined  her  sister  at  Port  Royal ;  not 
quite  willingly  at  first,  she  left  her  own  Abbey  of  St 
Cyr,  and  put  herself  under  her  sister's  Rule. 

She  had  plunged  very  early  into  the  life  of  extreme 
austerity,  and  came  to  Port  Royal  in  a  critical  condition 
of  health.  We  are  told  in  one  of  the  Mdmoires  how 
tenderly  Mere  Angelique  nursed  her  sister  in  a  hot 
room,  during  the  greatest  heat  of  summer  ;  every  cranny 
was  closed,  as  a  breath  of  air  made  the  invalid  faint. 


AGNES  ARNAULD  25 

Mere  Angelique  was  not  in  advance  of  her  time  in 
respect  to  a  love  of  fresh  air! 

Agnes,  however,  recovered,  and  made  her  novitiate 
under  no  gentler  condition  than  anyone  else.  She  was 
already  a  striking  person,  and  was,  while  still  a  novice, 
made  Mistress  of  the  Novices.  Of  her  a  monk  pro- 
phesied that  she  would  become  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished nuns  in  France.  As  M.  Sainte  Beuve  says  : 
"  She  belongs  to  the  school  of  St  Theresa."  Angelique 
treated  Agnes  with  considerable  rigour  ;  she  said  herself 
that  Agnes  at  the  beginning  of  her  Religious  Life  was 
extremely  proud,  self-satisfied,  but  "Dieu  la  changea." 

Marie  Claire,  who  was  present  at  the  famous 
"Journee  du  Guichet,"  was  always  a  self-willed  little 
person,  as  we  shall  see  later  on.  She  had  been  placed 
in  Port  Royal  when  a  child  of  seven,  and  a  little  visit  to 
her  father's  country  home  at  Andilly  raised  feelings  and 
wishes  not  in  accordance  with  her  vocation. 

But,  as  events  showed,  Marie  Claire  was  a  born 
religious.  Mere  Angelique  (who,  whatever  she  may 
have  been  in  these  comparatively  early  days,  was 
afterwards  an  excellent  judge  of  vocations)  "  clothed," 
to  use  a  technical  term,  her  little  sister  when  Marie  was 
fourteen. 

The  reform  was  complete,  and  a  spirit  of  fervour,  of 
self-sacrifice,  of  obedience  and  of  love  to  God  and  man 
reigned  in  the  Convent.  Wonderful  stories  are  told  of 
Mere  Angelique's  charity,  both  now  and  after  her  eight 
years'  sojourn  at  Maubuisson.  Mere  Angelique  had  a 
passionate  desire  for  real  poverty,  for  mean  buildings, 
for  coarse  clothing,  for  all  and  every  kind  of  mortifica- 
tion. If  a  Sister  became  ill,  it  was  always  Mere 
Angelique  who  nursed  her ;  if  something  rather  less 
tempting  in  the  way  of  food  than  the  ordinary  diet 
came  in  her  way,  the  Mother  always  reserved  it  for 
herself.  Silence  was  very  strictly  observed  in  Port 
Royal,  and  when  one  thinks  of  the  smallness  of  talk,  the 
excitement  about  petty  details  which  is  said  to  be 
among  the  besetting  sins  of  Religious  Communities, 
one  feels  that  there  is  something  to  be  said  for  Mere 


26  EAELY   DAYS 

Angelique's  insistence  on  extreme  restriction  in  the 
matter  of  speech.  M.  Maeterlinck  himself  can  hardly 
have  a  higher  opinion  of  the  preciousness  of  silence 
than  had  Mere  Angelique. 

"  But  the  silence  she  advised  was  not  dull  and  purely 
outward,  but  flowed  from  the  silence  of  the  heart,  which 
consists  in  the  grace  of  recollection  and  a  continual 
looking  up  to  God."1 

Even  when  the  Community  met  in  Chapter,  there 
was  little  conversation ;  the  time  was  spent  chiefly  in 
reading  Holy  Scripture  and  in  spiritual  instructions. 

Mere  Angelique  tried  much  to  plant  and  nourish 
humility,  that  it  might  be  evident  even  in  a  Sister's 
movements  and  manners,  and  above  all  in  the  way  she 
bore  any  and  all  slights  and  hurts  and  insults  with 
patience,  with  thankfulness.  Certainly  she  herself 
practised  what  she  preached. 

Mere  Angelique  used  to  maintain  that  everything 
worked  for  good  in  the  souls  of  those  who  love  God, 
even  their  faults — for  these  very  faults  indeed  serve  the 
purpose  of  making  ardent  souls    more    humble    and 
watchful    and    dependent    on   God.     She  judged    her 
younger  Sisters  not  so  much  by  the  fact  that  "  they  had 
few  or  many  faults,  but  rather  by  the  way  in  which  they 
began  again  after  a  fall,  how  they  received  reproof,  if 
they  were  careful  to  make  up  as  it  were  for  any  fault,  if 
they  strove  against  faults." 

Mere  Angelique's  whole  life  was  one  of  service  for 
others,  and  there  is  something  very  strong  in  her 
remarks  on  the  duty  of  considering  others.  If  some 
one  from  outside  wished  to  make  a  Retreat,  she  said 
the  distraction,  the  extra  work  caused  by  such  a  person 
or  persons  must  be  disregarded.  Charity  must  be  pre- 
ferred to  regularity.  If  workmen  were  engaged  in 
building  or  repairing,  the  Mother  contrived  that  some 
priest  should  be  at  hand  to  teach,  and  that  no  earnings 
should  be  lost  for  time  spent  in  devotion.  Instances 
are  given  of  tenderness  to  those  who  had  fallen  into  sin, 
of  rescue  from  a  life  of  sin.  Perhaps  the  Mother's 

1  Histoire  de  VAbbaye  de  Port  Royal,  livre  i.,  p.  44. 


LIFE  AT  POET  EOYAL  27 

readiness  to  receive  undowered  Sisters  into  her  Com- 
munity, if  she  were  sure  of  the  genuineness  of  their  voca- 
tion, was  not  the  least  striking  proof  of  her  boundless 
love,  of  her  absolute  unworldliness  in  an  age  certainly 
not  remarkable  for  its  contempt  for  worldly  rank  and 
riches. 

A  touching  testimony  to  this  is  given  by  the  Sister 
Marguerite  Angelique.  "  Although  I  was  lacking  in 
the  things  of  this  world,  and  in  intelligence,  and  still 
more  in  goodness,  the  Mother's  joy  seemed  only  to  be 
increased,  because  she  received  me  simply  for  the  love 
of  God.  She  devoted  herself  to  me  with  an  extra- 
ordinary kindness,  taking  the  trouble  to  come  nearly 
every  day  to  the  novitiate  to  teach  me  to  read 
Latin.  ...  I  was  very  dainty  about  food ;  the  mother 
encouraged  me  in  mortification.  She  wished  to  receive 
me  as  being  really  poor,  and  when  she  learned  that  my 
mother  had  sent  me  some  rather  nice  linen,  she  insisted 
on  my  sending  it  to  my  sister.  .  .  .  She  helped  my 
brother  more  than  once  in  his  expenses  when  he  entered 
the  army." 

A  very  pretty  story  is  told  of  two  maidens  who 
offered  themselves  for  the  novitiate :  one  had  a  dowry, 
the  other  had  none.  They  were  both  received,  but 
only  one,  the  one  with  a  dowry,  was  professed  ;  the  other 
poor  novice  was  dismissed,  but  the  dowry  which  the 
first  had  brought  was  bestowed  on  her.  Many  another 
such  story  is  told  of  Mere  Angelique.  She  was  a  true 
child  of  St  Francis  of  Assisi,  and  we  can  imagine  with 
what  pleasure  she  would  read  of  his  devotion  to  his 
Bride  Poverty. 

Mere  Angelique  was  free  from  anything  like  narrow- 
mindedness,  from  limited  views.  Her  love  extended  far 
beyond  her  own  Community :  it  was  only  necessary  to 
be  poor,  or  sick,  a  widow,  an  orphan,  a  repentant 
sinner,  to  find  a  sure  way  to  Mere  Angelique's  heart. 

And  now  we  have  reached  the  Maubuisson  period — 
the  first  break  in  the  comparatively  peaceful  time 
which  succeeded  the  stormy  "Journ£e  du  Guichet," 
the  time  which,  as  Sainte  Beuve  justly  says,  is  char- 


28  EAKLY  DAYS 

acterised  by  simple  activity  in  doing  good.  Other 
Abbeys  were  reformed,  other  Abbesses  felt  the  attrac- 
tion, and  came  and  put  themselves  to  school  under  the 
now  renowned  young  Abbess,  who  had  not  yet  attained 
her  thirtieth  year.  Later  on  we  shall  see  nuns  setting 
out  from  Port  Royal  to  other  Convents,  ordered  to 
undertake  the  task  of  reform.  The  whole  Religious 
Life  was  reviving  in  clergy  and  laity,  and  Port  Royal 
led  the  way  in  the  renewal  of  fervour,  and  obedience, 
and  devotion  amongst  those  dedicated  to  serve  God  in 
Religion.  The  nuns  at  Port  Royal  lived  with  little 
regard  for  comfort,  or  ease,  or  convenience.  They 
shared,  of  course,  the  ignorance  of  all  sanitary  laws,  and 
the  fact  that  the  rooms  set  apart  for  the  sick  were  damp, 
and  space  throughout  limited,  troubled  them  but  little. 
M.  Arnauld  came  to  the  rescue.  At  first,  Mere 
Angelique  had,  as  we  have  seen,  considered  it  right  to 
dispense  with  the  help  her  father  had  given  her  before 
the  reform.  But  when  Anne  entered  Port  Royal,  he 
ordered  repairs  and  fresh  building  to  be  carried  out  at 
his  expense.  And  from  that  time  the  most  tender 
affection  united  the  whole  family  of  Arnauld,  little  as 
they  foresaw  how  inextricably  their  fortunes  were  inter- 
woven with  those  of  the  Abbey,  which  the  father  of 
"tous  les  notres"  had  appropriated  so  carelessly  and 
lightly  to  himself  and  his  family. 


CHAPTER  II 

MAUBUISSON  (1618-1623) 

THE  Abbey  of  Maubuisson  had  for  some  time  enjoyed 
an  evil  reputation.  Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  understand 
why  M.  Arnauld  selected  it  as  a  suitable  place  of 
education  for  Angelique.  It  is  possible,  however,  that 
so  long-  as  Henri  IV.  lived  and  protected  it,  the  worst 
scandals  were  concealed.  Louis  XIII.  had  become 
aware  of  the  state  of  affairs,  and  had  given  orders  that 
Maubuisson  should  be  " visited"  and  reformed.  Mme. 
D'Estrees,  the  sister  of  Gabrielle,  was  one  of  the  worst 
of  "  religious,"  one  of  those  who,  by  their  absolutely 
shameless  conduct,  amply  justified  any  reproach  hurled 
by  their  enemies  at  religious  foundations. 

Even  Mme.  D'Estrees  seems  to  have  had  some 
qualms  from  time  to  time.  She  went  so  far  as  to  pay 
a  visit  to  Port  Royal  in  1611,  and  Angelique  thought 
her  former  Superior  in  earnest,  and  offered  to  gx>  to 
Maubuisson  and  help  her.  Nothing  came  of  this. 

The  Abbot  of  Citeaux,  M.  Boucherat,  found  the 
task  of  reform  committed  to  him  by  the  King  by  no 
means  easy.  He  began  by  sending  "religious"  from  his 
Abbey,  armed  with  his  authority,  to  take  possession  of 
it,  but  Mme.  D'Estrees  made  their  visit  extremely  un- 
pleasant, and  the  last  of  them  was,  with  the  people  in 
attendance  on  him,  confined  in  a  tower,  fed  on  bread 
and  water,  and  soundly  flogged  every  morning-.  At 
the  end  of  four  days,  M.  Deruptis  managed  to  escape 
through  a  window.  It  all  seems  like  a  story  of  the 
Middle  Ages ;  Mme.  D'Estrees,  who  was  probably  as 


30  MAUBUISSON 

ignorant  as  she  was  wicked  and  depraved,  could  not 
read  the  signs  of  the  times. 

Mme.  D'Estrees  was  by  no  means  a  coward,  and 
stoutly  resisted  any  attempt  to  eject  her,  and  as  she 
belonged  to  a  good  family  she  felt  sure  of  protection. 

But  her  own  family  were  tired,  and  perhaps  ashamed, 
of  her.  The  Abbess  had  just  forced  her  sister,  a 
novice  at  Maubuisson,  into  a  marriage.  According  to 
one  of  the  Mdmoires  this  marriage  was  the  cause 
of  her  family's  disgust,  although  M.  Sainte  Beuve 
states  that  her  brother  had  helped  the  unworthy 
Abbess.  What  a  picture  of  the  time ! 

M.  de  Citeaux  went  himself  to  Maubuisson,  called 
a  Chapter,  saw  each  nun  in  private,  but  in  vain  tried  to 
see  the  Abbess,  who  refused  either  to  appear  in 
Chapter  or  to  see  the  Superior  in  private.  Accordingly, 
M.  de  Citeaux  obtained  an  order  from  the  Court, 
authorising  him  to  convey  the  Abbess  to  the  "Filles 
Penitentes."  He  took  a  small  army  with  him,  and  had 
no  little  difficulty  in  catching  his  Abbess,  who  retreated 
to  bed,  and  then  finding  the  doors  had  been  forced,  hid 
herself,  half-dressed  as  she  was,  and  obstinately  refused 
to  come  out  and  dress.  At  last  she  was  seized  and 
conveyed  to  Paris  on  her  bed. 

After  this  edifying  scene,  M.  de  Citeaux  called  the 
Chapter  and  ordered  them  to  elect  an  Abbess,  who  was 
to  govern  the  Abbey  as  Viceregent.  He  suggested 
Madame  de  Port  Royal,  who  was  already  known  to 
them.  They  had  requested  him  to  take  one  of  them- 
selves, and  he  did  so,  for  had  not  Angelique  been 
professed  at  Maubuisson?  This  frightened  the  nuns 
terribly:  "We  shall  be  reformed,"  they  said  in  strong 
language,  we  shall  fall  "aux  mains  du  monstre 
chimerique  d'une  reforme  affreuse  et  sauvage." 

But  M.  de  Citeaux  had  no  pity.  After  consulting 
M.  Arnauld — who  by  this  time  was  sharing  to  some 
extent  in  the  fame  of  the  reformed  Abbey — he  repaired 
to  Port  Royal,  as  we  have  seen,  and  carried  off  the 
much-loved  Mother,  after  professing  the  young  and 
ardent  Anne.  Agnes,  left  behind  as  Prioress,  to 


THE  AERIVAL  31 

govern,  instead  of  the  sister  who  had  been  her  Mother 
in  Religion,  as  her  sister  drove  away,  went  back  into 
the  Chapel,  and  flinging  herself  before  the  altar,  sobbed 
out  in  broken  accents,  "  Ecce  nos  relinquimus  omnia, 
omnia,  omnia."  It  is  the  cry  of  many  who  are  called 
to  the  Way  of  Sorrow,  but  no  question  of  "what  shall 
we  have  ?  "  followed. 

And  the  brave  Angelique,  with  the  simple  obedience 
of  a  soldier  called  to  the  front,  had  risen  to  the  occasion, 
and  had  left  her  peaceful,  happy  Convent  to  go  to  face 
every  sort  of  disagreeable,  deprivation  of  spiritual  help, 
probable  danger.  She  had  no  illusions  on  the  subject ; 
she  warned  her  companions  that  they  might  lose  health 
and  life  itself  in  the  weary  battle. 

They  seem  to  have  left  Port  Royal  in  much  the 
same  spirit  in  which  we  see  our  heroic  brothers  and 
sisters  set  forth  for  Central  Africa  or  China,  thank 
God,  in  this  unromantic  and  so-called  faithless  age. 

These  anticipations  were  justified.  Neither  Isabel 
Agnes  de  Chateau-neuf  nor  Marie  Claire  was  ever 
well  again.  They  seem  to  have  suffered  (to  complete 
the  likeness  to  modern  days)  from  perpetual  attacks  of 
malarial  fever.  Isabel  Agnes  de  Chiteau-neuf  died  in 
162 1,  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-eight,  having  completely 
lost  her  health ;  and  Marie  Claire,  who  survived  her 
sixteen  years,  told  her  niece,  the  famous  Angelique  de 
St  Jean  (daughter  of  M.  d'Andilly),  that  from  the  time 
she  had  entered  Maubuisson  she  had  never  known  a 
day's  freedom  from  feverish  attacks. 

The  third  of  the  Port  Royalists  who  accompanied 
Mere  Angelique  was  the  "  Mere  de  la  Croix,"  one  of 
the  older  nuns  whom  Angdique  had  "  reformed."  They 
spent  a  few  days  in  Paris  with  the  Arnauld  family, 
while  M.  de  Citeaux  prepared  the  nuns  at  Maubuisson, 
and  then  set  out. 

When  the  little  party  arrived  at  Maubuisson,  one  of 
the  Offices  of  the  Day  was  being  sung,  and  as  one  of 
the  "relations"  says,  the  way  in  which  the  duty  was  dis- 
charged was  an  excellent  specimen  for  the  Mother 
of  what  she  might  expect.  The  discordant  noise  was 


32  MAUBUISSON 

such  that  it  seemed  to  be  the  sound  of  people  who  were 
quarrelling,  rather  than  that  of  pious  voices  chanting 
holy  words. 

M.  de  Citeaux  entered,  presented  Angelique,  read 
some  regulations,  for  which  she  had  asked,  to  aid  her 
in  her  work  of  reform,  then  convoked  a  Chapter, 
and  installed  her  with  plenary  authority  to  govern. 
Angelique's  work  now  began.  She  showed  every 
quality  which  was  to  be  desired  in  a  person  armed  with 
authority,  inspired  with  a  keen  sense  of  what  was 
fitting  and  right,  and  yet  filled  with  the  love  which 
"beareth  all  things,  endureth  all  things,"  patient  with 
the  sinful,  strict  and  unsparing  with  herself;  and  holding 
up  to  those  who  were  with  her  the  loftiest  ideal  of 
courage,  of  love,  of  self-surrender.  From  those  who 
knew  the  love  of  Christ,  who  were  in  very  deed  His, 
she  expected  everything;  from  those  who  had  to  be 
converted  to  a  sense  of  sin,  she  expected  nothing. 
Certainly  this  is  the  teaching  of  the  school  of  Christ. 

Ang^lique  began  her  hard  task  by  trying  all  the 
forces  of  love.  She  knew  many  of  the  nuns,  she 
showed  affection  for  them,  she  tried  her  best  to  please 
them;  and  a  touching  story  is  told  how  "la  Mere" 
devoted  herself  with  unfailing  charity  and  pity  to  the 
care  of  a  poor  blind  old  nun,  and  did  all  she  could  to 
amuse  and  comfort  her. 

By  degrees  the  extreme  terror  which  the  arrival  of 
the  Port  Royalists  had  excited,  diminished,  and  the 
sweetness  and  religious  fervour  of  the  little  band 
won  the  hearts  of  the  Maubuisson  nuns.  The  Port 
Royalists,  who  were  all  still  young,  were  in  their 
purity,  their  self-surrender,  like  beings  from  another 
sphere. 

There  were  at  this  time  some  twenty-two  nuns  at 
Maubuisson,  most  of  whom  had  been  professed  without 
any  inclination  for  the  Religious  Life,  and  who  were 
as  fully  unfitted  for  it  as  complete  ignorance  of  the 
first  elements  of  Christian  knowledge  and  the  total 
absence  of  the  most  ordinary  moral  standard  in  their 
Abbess  could  make  them.  They  could  not,  it  is  said, 


ANGELIQUE'S  EEFOEMS  33 

even  make  their  confessions,  or  recite  the  Office 
properly.  They  spent  their  time  in  amusing1  themselves 
as  best  they  could,  and  it  was  a  favourite  expedition 
in  the  summer  to  go  out  of  the  precincts  of  Maubuisson, 
and  meet  the  young  monks  from  the  neighbouring  Abbey 
of  Pontoise ;  these  remarkable  specimens  of  conventual 
life  frequently  danced  together  on  the  grass.  Poor 
people — so  badly  treated  by  a  world  which  had  forced 
them  into  a  life  for  which  they  were  as  unfitted  as  they 
would  probably  have  been  for  the  holy  estate  of  mar- 
riage. One  cannot  easily  believe  that  the  nun  who  quite 
spoiled  her  life  would  have  made  an  exemplary  wife  and 
mother.  There  is  something  grimly  fantastic  in  the 
quiet  account  in  the  Histoire  de  Port  Royal,  from  which 
all  this  is  quoted. 

How  far  removed  this  sort  of  standard  was  from  the 
lofty,  exalted  ideals  of  Port  Royal!  Mere  Angelique 
must  have  felt  that  the  place  was  a  veritable  Augean 
stable. 

First  of  all,  she  got  rid  of  the  care  of  administering 
the  estate  of  Maubuisson  by  engaging  an  agent,  or 
steward,  who  was,  however,  to  act  under  her  orders. 
Then  came  internal  reforms.  Bit  by  bit,  little  by  little, 
the  Convent  was  restored  to  outward  order  and  respect- 
ability, and  the  strictly  cloistered  life  was  revived. 

But  Angelique  saw  with  her  usual  clear-sightedness 
that  nothing  could  be  done  with  the  elderly  nuns,  that 
new  wine  was  needed  to  burst  the  ancient  wine-skin 
full  of  prejudice,  of  evil  habits,  of  sloth.  She  obtained 
permission  from  the  Superior  (M.  de  Citeaux),  and 
possibly  also  from  the  Court,  to  receive  forty  novices, 
without  any  restriction  as  to  dowry,  with  a  single 
condition — vocation.  Maubuisson  was  supposed  to 
have  on  the  foundation  a  hundred  nuns  ;  at  this  time 
there  were  only  sixteen  Professed  Sisters. 

Very  soon  numbers  of  would-be  postulants  presented 
themselves ;  not  a  few  were  brought  by  parents  who 
saw  an  easy  way  of  disposing  of  superfluous  daughters, 
since  this  wonderful  and  eccentric  Abbess  exacted  no 
dowry.  "  God  gave  me  from  the  beginning  an  intense 


34  MAUBUISSON 

aversion  to  haggling  about  maidens."  Angelique  once 
said  that  the  Capuchin  Father  to  whom  she  owed  those 
first  stirrings,  told  her  that  it  was  simony  to  exact  a 
dowry  from  a  postulant.  But  she  exacted  something 
as  difficult  to  procure  on  demand,  nay,  more  difficult, 
than  money — she  asked  for  the  marks  of  a  true  and 
inward  call. 

The  young  novices  at  Maubuisson  were  watched 
and  taught  and  tended  with  the  care  one  would  expect. 
The  Sister  Isabelle  Agnes,  a  girl  of  nineteen,  was  made 
Mistress  of  the  Novices,  who  were  kept  entirely  apart 
from  the  original  Sisters.  Mere  Angelique  with  the 
other  Port  Royalists  shared  their  refectory,  and  practi- 
cally lived  with  them.  Mere  Ange"lique  had  set  her 
heart  on  her  novices  learning  Plain  Song  thoroughly, 
so  that  in  time  the  reproach  of  the  disgracefully 
rendered  Offices  might  be  rolled  away  from  the 
Convent.  Many  years  were  spent  in  this ;  but  work 
of  all  sorts,  religious  training  in  silence  and  recollec- 
tion, went  forward  also.  Mere  Angelique  shirked  no 
hardship  herself ;  no  bit  of  housework  was  too  laborious, 
too  menial  for  her.  As  we  should  expect,  she  chose  the 
worst  and  unhealthiest  room  for  her  own.  Mere 
Angelique  set  every  law  of  health  at  defiance,  but  the 
seventeenth  century  was  not  remarkable  for  love  of 
fresh  air  or  of  frequent  ablutions.  Little  by  little  the 
rule  of  absolute  silence  was  established  ;  work  was  done 
with  little  or  no  noise.  The  novices'  expenses  were  cut 
down  to  the  last  degree  of  economy,  and  their  food  was 
barely  sufficient.  But  the  older  nuns  were  treated  with 
the  same  unwearying  kindness.  Angelique  realised  that 
conversion  must  precede  the  life  of  self-denial,  that  the 
outward  rule  can  only  be  sanctified  by  the  inner  life — 
"  Christ  dwelling  in  us  and  we  in  Him." 

The  whole  period  of  her  sojourn  at  Maubuisson  was 
for  Angelique  one  of  intense  fervour.  She  denied  her- 
self every  comfort,  chose  the  least  comfortable  cell, 
undertook  every  sort  of  menial  work,  waited  on  the  sick, 
and  also  attended  to  the  poor  outside  Maubuisson. 

And  now  a  new  epoch — so  to  speak — began  in  1619, 


ST  FRANCOIS  DE  SALES  35 

Angelique  was  to  meet  a  spiritual  adviser  who  could 
help,  advise,  " comfort"  as  no  preceding-  confessor  or 
director  had  been  able  to  do.  This  was  the  great  St 
Francois  de  Sales.  And  a  short  digression  is  necessary 
in  order  that  we  may  fully  understand  what  manner  of 
man  St  Francois  was.  It  is  needless  here  to  give  the 
details  of  his  life.  Of  noble  birth,  born  in  1567  in 
Savoy,  called  in  1602  to  be  Bishop  of  Geneva,  Francois 
de  Sales  lived,  more  or  less  perpetually,  in  the  great 
world.  Known  equally  at  the  Court  of  Savoy  and 
that  of  Paris,  through  all  these  years  he  was  in  the 
world,  never  of  it.  Those  who  would  study  his  life 
and  his  works  can  do  so.  What  we  wish  to  notice 
is  the  peculiar  character  of  St  Fra^ois'  teaching. 

Those  who  have  read  Sainte  Beuve's  History  of 
Port  Royal  will  remember  his  summing  up  of  St 
Fra^ois'  character:  "Son  ame,  c'etait  une  sphere 
complete  sous  une  seule  etoile."  That  is  to  say,  his 
character  was  extraordinarily  balanced.  With  the 
most  profound  sense  of  the  love  of  God,  so  great 
indeed,  that  love  is  the  virtue,  the  gift  we  most 
associate  with  his  name,  yet  he  had  the  compensating 
grace  of  a  strong  sense  of  justice,  of  the  blackness  of 
sin,  of  the  need  of  self-discipline.  He  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  director  par  excellence  of  women,  and  yet  all 
his  relations  with  them  were  marked  by  that  sanctified 
common  sense  which  is  so  lamentably  absent  in  many 
good  people. 

There  was  in  St  Francois  de  Sales  a  remarkable 
union  of  that  love  for  God,  of  the  temper  which  char- 
acterises— shall  we  say  St  John  ?- — of  contemplation,  of 
charity  for  others,  with  a  clear-sighted  judgment  of 
men  and  of  affairs. 

His  life  was  one  of  incessant  work,  of  " affairs,"  of 
delicate  missions.  From  these,  he  returned  to  his  con- 
ferences with  his  spiritual  children,  especially  to  his 
beloved  Mme.  de  Chantal,  the  first  Superior  of  the 
Order  of  the  Visitation,  or  to  his  writings,  or  his  letters. 
"In  quietness  and  in  confidence  shall  be  your  strength," 
he  seems  to  be  ever  saying.  Yet  he  was  not  in  the 


36  MAUBUISSON 

least  blind  to  the  difficulties,  the  shortcoming's,  the  sins 
of  the  Church  of  his  day. 

Angelique  said,  years  later  : — 

'  This  holy  prelate  helped  me  very  much,  and  I  may 
say  that  he  confided  in  me  almost  as  much  as  in  Mme. 
de  Chantal.  I  was  surprised  at  the  freedom  and  kind- 
ness with  which  he  uttered  his  intimate  thoughts  to  me, 
as  I  had  previously  confided  mine  to  him.  It  is  certain 
that  far  less  enlightenment  as  to  the  direction  and  rule 
of  the  Church  has  been  attributed  to  him  than  he 
really  possessed.  He  had  that  single  eye  which  per- 
ceived every  evil  and  every  corruption  which  lack  of 
discipline  has  brought  about  in  the  way  of  life  both  of 
secular  clergy  and  of  religious. 

'^But  he  hid  all  this  in  silence,  and  enveloped  it  in 
charity  and  humility.  He  groaned  over  the  corruptions 
of  the  Court  of  Rome,  pointing  these  out  to  me  in 
detail.  Then  he  said  :  '  My  daughter,  this  is  a  real  cause 
for  weeping,  for  if  it  is  spoken  of  to  the  world,  useless 
scandal  will  be  caused.  For  these  sick  souls  love  their 
ills  and  will  not  be  cured.  It  is  the  duty  of  (Ecumenical 
Councils  to  reform  the  head  and  the  members  ;  they  are 
above  the  Pope.  But  Popes  get  exasperated  when  the 
Church  does  not  bend  under  them,  although  in  truth 
the  Church  is  above  the  Pope  when  the  Council  is  uni- 
versal and  canonical. 

*  I  know  this,  but  prudence  forbids  my  speaking  of 
this,  for  I  can  hope  for  no  results  if  I  did  speak.  We 
must  weep  and  pray  in  secret  that  God  will  put  His 
Hand  to  what  man  cannot,  and  we  should  humble  our- 
selves to  the  ecclesiastical  powers  under  whom  He  has 
placed  us,  and  beseech  Him  that  He  would  convert  and 
humiliate  them  by  the  might  of  His  Spirit,  and  that 
He  would  reform  the  abuses  which  lhave  crept  into  the 
Church,  and  would  send  to  her  holy  pastors  .  .  . ' 

"He  comforted  me  very  much,  as  he  comforted 
Mme.  de  Chantal ;  he  had  united  us  in  a  firm  friendship 
as  intimate  as  it  could  be  without  our  having  seen  each 
other." 

Mere  Angelique  said  once  in  1653  to  her  nephew, 
M.  Le  Maitre,  that  until  St  Frangois  came  into  her  life 
she  had  never  been  able  to  feel  complete  confidence  in 
any  spiritual  guide.  "  I  found  in  him  such  great 


OPINION  OF  ST  FEANCOIS  37 

sincerity,  and  such  great  gifts  and  graces  and  inward 
light,  that  I  opened  my  heart  to  him.  (Je  lui  mis  mon 
cceur  entre  les  mains  sans  aucune  reserve.)  She 
mentions  many  previous  advisers  who  had  helped  her 
to  some  extent,  but  she  says  that  some  of  these  "were 
too  subtle  for  me.  I  loved  sincerity  and  openness  above 
all  in  people  who  advised  one  in  spiritual  things  (gens 
de  conscience)  .  .  .  Others  were  more  frank,  but  they 
seemed  to  me  so  limited  in  their  knowledge,  that  I 
was  obliged  to  be  very  prudent  and  reserved  with 
them." 

The  seventeenth  century  was,  as  every  other  century 
has  been,  and  as  all  periods  will  be  to  the  end  of  time, 
full  of  perplexity  and  causes  for  sorrow.  St  Francois, 
again,  to  quote  Sainte  Beuve,  practised  the  "silence  de 
ge'missement."1 

On  Port  Royal  and  Mere  Angelique,  St  Francois' 
influence  was  altogether  happy,  and  not  the  least  of  the 
benefits  he  procured  to  her  was  the  friendship  of  his 
very  special  spiritual  daughter,  Madame  de  Chantal. 

When  Angelique  heard  that  the  Bishop  was  in  Paris, 
she  longed  very  much  to  see  him,  and  it  fortunately 
chanced  that  a  certain  M.  de  Bonneuil,  who  held  a  post 
at  Court 2  wished  his  daughter,  who  was  being  brought 
up  at  Maubuisson,  to  be  confirmed  by  M.  de  Geneve, 
as  he  was  usually  styled.  The  holy  Bishop  came  to  the 
" reformed'  Abbey,  and  between  the  still  youthful 
Abbess,  longing  so  earnestly  for  spiritual  counsel,  for 
guidance  in  her  difficult  position,  and  the  director  par 
excellence  of  holy  souls,  there  grew  up  a  friendship 
which  lasted  until  St  Francois'  death  in  1622. 

Mere  Angelique  seized  the  opportunity,  as  soon  as  it 
presented  itself,  of  consulting  M.  de  Geneve.  She  went 
into  Retreat  for  a  few  days,  in  which  she  was  able  to 
consult  him  on  many  points.  She  unburdened  herself 
by  making  a  general  confession,  and  amongst  other 
things  she  confided  to  St  Frangois  her  great  desire  to 
get  rid  of  her  Abbey  of  Port  Royal,  to  be  a  simple  nun 

1  Memoires  Historiques  et  Chronologiques, 

2  Introducteur  des  Ambassadeurs, 


38  MAUBUISSON 

and  to  enter  the  Order  of  the  Visitation  which  Mme.  de 
Chantal  had  just  established  under  St  Francois'  direc- 
tion, and  to  this  piece  of  self-abnegation  the  Bishop 
seemed  at  first  favourable.  She  had  had  leanings  to 
several  other  Orders,  and  it  was  the  absence  of 
anything  that  savoured  of  extravagance  in  St  Francois 
that  attracted  her.  The  Carmelites  revolted  her  by 
the  number  of  their  visions  and  special  revelations, 
which  might  be  possible  for  St  Theresa,  but  did  not 
seem  probable  for  them. 

Angelique  herself  wrote  to  her  father  suggesting 
that  as  her  work  at  Maubuisson  would  take  a  long  time, 
it  might  be  as  well  to  replace  her  at  Port  Royal  by 
Agnes.  But  M.  Arnauld,  who  combined  the  wisdom 
of  the  serpent  with  his  other  qualities,  simply  set  himself 
to  work  to  make  Agnes  coadjutor- Abbess,  and  obtained 
this  favour  without  much  trouble. 

And  M.  de  Geneve  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
Mere  Angelique  had  better  be  left  in  her  own  Com- 
munity and  her  office.  God,  he  said,  had  marked  her 
out  for  great  things — to  do,  to  suffer.  "  I  think  I  may 
assure  you  of  this,  as  being  God's  will,  that  you  will 
be  used  by  Him  for  important  things,  and  in  an  extra- 
ordinary way,  and  also  that  you  have  reason  to  adore 
with  deep  humility  the  ordering  of  His  wonderful 
Providence."1  Thirty  years  afterwards,  Angelique 
spoke  of  this  prophecy,  and  felt  that  it  had  been  indeed 
fulfilled. 

St  Francois  paid  several  visits  to  Maubuisson,  and 
the  last  one  (August,  1619)  lasted  nine  days.  He  had 
always  spent  a  short  time  at  Andilly,  and  had  made 
himself  the  friend  of  the  Arnauld  family ;  he  had 
solemnly  blessed  the  children,  among  them  a  boy  of  six 
years  old,  one  day  to  become  the  famous  Antoine 
Arnauld.  And  with  the  young  Arnaulds  there  were 
also  the  children  of  poor  Catherine  Le  Maitre,  M. 
Arnauld's  only  married  daughter,  who,  after  a  short 
unhappy  married  life  had  separated  from  her  husband 
and  was  living  at  home ;  and  Robert  d' Andilly,  who, 

1   Histoire  Gendrale  de  Port  Royal^  vol.  i.,  p.  97. 


THE  METHOD  OF  ST  FEANQOIS        39 

some  years  before  had  married  the  daughter  of  M.  de  la 
Boderie,  who  had  been  Ambassador  in  England. 
D'Andilly  speaks  in  the  warmest  terms  of  his  father 
and  mother-in-law,  and  says  of  his  marriage — perhaps 
with  a  little  touch  of  Arnauld  pride  but  also  with  warm 
religious  feeling — "  It  is  not  strange  that  many  marriages 
are  unhappy,  because  the  only  considerations  in  people's 
minds  are  fortune,  position,  and  so  on,  and  no  thought 
is  given  to  the  stock,  or  to  merit,  or  to  right  living ; 
and  far  from  considering  that  happiness  should  be 
sought  in  a  union  so  holy  that  it  does  represent  the 
union  between  Christ  and  His  Church,  the  only  idea  is 
'possessions."1 

There  is  a  refreshingly  noble  tone  and  lofty  ideal  of 
life  among  this  patriarchal  family,  and  one  cannot  help 
thinking  that  St  Francois  must  have  enjoyed  his  visit 
to  Andilly. 

Catherine  made  a  vow  of  perpetual  widowhood,  and 
St  Frangois  received  it.  Afterwards  in  his  letters  he 
alludes  to  her  as  his  dear  St  Catherine  of  Genoa.  Her 
eldest  son,  a  boy  of  eleven,  so  well  known  as  M.  Le 
Maftre,  made  his  confession  to  him,  and  received  much 
advice  as  he  told  his  mother  afterwards,  adding  that 
St  Francois  seemed  much  cleverer  than  his  ordinary 
confessor. 

Mere  Angelique  says  that  she  did  not  find  St 
Frangois  that  mild  director  which  so  many  considered 
him  to  be,  and  it  seems  that  his  relations  with  his  cele- 
brated spiritual  child,  Madame  de  Chantal,  foundress  of 
the  Order  of  the  Visitation,  were  by  no  means  of  an 
enervating  nature.  It  is  possible  that  each  who  went 
for  guidance  to  the  great  Bishop  found  what  he  or  she 
most  needed.  Ardent,  noble,  courageous  souls  such  as 
Angelique  found  in  him  the  equally  courageous,  affec- 
tionate, and  yet  stern  adviser. 

After  all,  may  we  not  reverently  say  that  it  is  the 
method  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  To  the  shrinking  woman,  the 
abashed  publican,  who  so  tender?  but  to  His  very  own, 
His  nearest,  what  does  He  offer?  To  be  baptised  with 
His  Baptism,  to  drink  of  His  Cup,  to  be  girded  by 


40  MAUBUISSON 

another  and  carried  where  another  wills,  to  be  crucified 
with  Christ,  to  bear  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
What  is  the  last  Beatitude  ? — Persecution,  reviling  ;  and 
those  chosen  souls  in  time  respond  to  the  call. 

And  therefore  His  true  followers  who  are  called  to 
exercise  in  any  way  the  Pastoral  Office  have  to  learn 
His  method.  Angelique  says  of  St  Francois :  "  He 
condoned  nothing  in  those  souls  who  wished  to  be  led 
to  the  truth,  and  those  who  really  study  his  Rules  for 
his  Religious  will  perceive  that  he  desired  his  spiritual 
children  to  be  dead  to  themselves  and  crucified  with 
Jesus  Christ  fully  as  much  as  did  any  other  great 
teacher." 

As  often  happens,  the  time  of  quiet  retreat,  of  holy 
peace  was  sent  to  the  brave  young  Abbess  (she  was 
only  twenty-seven)  to  prepare  her  for  a  real  conflict 
with- — in  this  case — flesh  and  blood. 

Madame  D'Es trees  had  by  no  means  resigned  her- 
self to  her  fate,  or  in  any  way  repented.  Aided  by  the 
Count  de  Sanze,  to  whom  she  had  married  her  young 
sister,  and  some  other  gentlemen  who  probably  enjoyed 
the  adventure,  she  contrived  to  escape.  She  had 
already  engaged  in  a  lawsuit  to  regain  her  Abbey,  and 
appeared  likely  to  win  her  case,  but  this  escapade 
ruined  her. 

At  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  escorted  by  this 
troop,  so  suitable  an  escort  for  a  "soi-disant  reli- 
gieuse,"  she  arrived  at  Maubuisson,  and  one  of  the 
original  members  of  the  Community  (a  "fille  perdue" 
as  the  Mtmoires  call  her),  who  seems  to  have  kept  up  a 
correspondence  with  her  former  Abbess,  opened  the 
door. 

The  first  person  to  be  seen  was  Mere  Angelique,  who 
received  her  with  perfect  calmness  and  "  receuillement " 
(recollection). 

"Madame,"  said  the  former  Abbess,  "  you've  been 
in  my  place  for  a  long  time ;  you  must  leave  my  house, 
now  that  I  have  returned  to  it." 

"  Madame,"  replied  Angelique,  "when  those  who 
sent  me  here  order  me  to  leave,  I  will  willingly  go." 


MADAME  D'ESTREE'S  RAID  41 

Madame  D'Estre"es  was  extremely  angry  at  finding 
her  former  rooms  converted  into  an  infirmary,  and 
occupied  by  two  sick  nuns.  Mere  Angelique  replied 
simply  that  they  had  not  expected  the  honour  of  a  visit, 
and  retired,  ordering  everything  to  go  on  quietly,  and 
even  remembering  to  order  a  dinner  for  the  unwelcome 
intruder.  Then  came  the  hour  of  Terce  and  of  High 
Mass,  at  which  Angelique  quietly  took  her  place  as 
Abbess,  and  she  and  several  of  her  nuns  made  their 
Communion. 

The  strange  day  wore  on.  It  seems  as  if  Madame 
D'Estrees  hardly  knew  what  to  do  ;  she  wandered  about 
the  house,  trying  to  win  over  some  of  the  old  nuns  to 
her  side,  and  to  get  possession  of  the  keys. 

Dinner-time  came,  and  Mere  Angelique  after  sending1 
up  Madame  D'Estrees'  meal  to  her  own  room,  which 
had  been  put  in  order  for  her,  sat  down  with  her  little 
troop  in  the  refectory.  When  they  were  all  seated, 
she  told  them  that  it  was  quite  impossible  to  guess  what 
might  happen  during  the  day,  and  they  must  all  eat  and 
keep  up  their  strength. 

After  dinner,  the  confessor  of  the  Abbey,  a  certain 
Pere  Sabatier,  had  a  short  conversation  with  the 
intrepid  young  Abbess,  and  advised  her  to  withdraw 
quietly,  reminding  her  of  the  various  devices  by  means 
of  which  Madame  D'Estrees  had  already  alarmed  his 
feeble  spirit.  Mere  Angelique,  with  the  courage  of  a 
captain  of  a  gallant  ship  at  sea  when  he  is  asked  to 
abandon  his  ship,  replied  that  she  could  not  possibly  go 
out,  unless  she  were  commanded  by  her  Superiors  or 
compelled  by  violence. 

Madame  D'Estrees  then  made  her  appearance, 
and  the  same  arguments  were  renewed ;  Madame 
D'Estrees  proposed  that  they  should  go  into  church, 
which  they  did,  accompanied  by  the  little  band  of  Mere 
Angelique's  own  children.  Greatly  to  their  surprise 
they  found  the  church  full  of  armed  men.  The 
nuns  collected  round  their  Abbess,  and  Madame 
D'Estrees,  working  herself  into  a  passion,  made  as  if 
she  were  going  to  snatch  Angelique's  veil  from  her  head. 


42  MAUBUISSON 

Then,  as  Mere  Angelique  in  her  vivid  recital  says : 
"  Behold  my  lambs  became  as  lions,  and  one  of  them,  a 
girl  of  gentle  birth,  exclaimed  :  'You  wretched  woman,  do 
you  dare  to  take  away  Madame  de  Port  Royal's  veil.  I 
know  you,  I  know  what  you  are.' ' 

And  with  these  words,  the  high-spirited  little  nun 
snatched  Madame  D'Estrees'  veil  and  flung-  it  away. 
In  the  meantime,  the  gentle  Anne  Eugenie  Arnauld, 
who  some  time  before  had  joined  her  sister  at  Maubuis- 
son,  was  kneeling  in  one  of  the  stalls  absorbed  in  prayer, 
"priant  toujours  Dieu  dans  tout  ce  bruit."1 

Madame  D'Estrees  lost  all  control  of  herself,  and 
turning  to  her  brother  and  the  other  gentlemen,  ordered 
them  to  expel  Mere  Angelique  and  her  nuns  by  force. 
One  of  them  actually  took  hold  of  Angelique's  arms,  and 
Angelique  after  some  resistance,  seeing  that  it  was 
useless,  signed  to  her  novices  to  yield. 

In  the  court  of  the  Convent  there  was  a  carriage,  but 
when  Angelique  got  in  with  her  four  Port  Royalists,  the 
novices  and  some  of  the  Maubuisson  nuns  clung  on  to 
the  wheels  and  the  doors,  so  that  it  was  impossible  for 
the  coachman  to  move,  and  one  of  the  Port  Royalists 
said,  "  Dear  mother,  where  are  you  going?"  whereupon 
Angelique  got  out  and  proceeded  to  marshal  her  nuns 
and  novices  and  leave  the  Abbey.  Madame  D'Estrees 
by  no  means  wished  the  little  troop  to  follow  Angelique, 
and  there  ensued  something  of  a  scuffle,  during  which  a 
strong  novice  pushed  the  door  open,  took  Madame 
D'Estrees  round  the  waist,  and  held  her  tightly  until  the 
file  of  "  religieuses  "  had  passed  through. 

Two  of  Mere  Angelique's  spiritual  daughters  were 
not  among  them.  One  who  had  just  been  professed 
was  kept  back  by  a  feeling  that,  as  she  was  a  cloistered 
nun,  she  ought  not  to  go  out.  The  other,  a  postulant, 
had  been  happily  occupied  in  the  dairy  for  some  hours 
and  had  heard  nothing  of  the  disturbances.  When  she 
came  into  the  Abbey,  great  was  her  surprise  and  terror. 
She  was  a  strong-minded  young  person,  and  insisted  on 

1  Anne  had  been  very  ill,  and  had  been  brought  to  Maubuisson,  as  it 
was  considered  healthier  than  Port  Royal. 


ANGELIQTJE'S  SOJOURN  AT  PONTOISE    43 

being-  allowed  to  go  out.     It  is  to  be  hoped  that  she 
soon  caught  up  the  expelled  nuns. 

Mere  Angelique  led  her  little  flock  in  procession  to 
the  town  of  Pontoise,  only  a  very  short  walk,  but  Mere 
Angelique  and  her  nuns  were  by  no  means  in  the  habit 
of  indulging-  in  walks.  A  halt  was  made  at  the  outlying 
suburb  of  Aumone,  where  in  the  Church  of  St  Ouen, 
Queen  Blanche's  image  of  the  Virgin  still  stands 
(Queen  Blanche,  the  mother  of  St  Louis). 

There  was  much  contagious  sickness  in  Pontoise, 
and  Mere  Angelique  made  her  little  troop  take  cordials, 
and  tear  up  the  apron  of  a  postulant  in  order  to  provide 
veils  for  those  poor  nuns  who  had  come  unveiled  in  their 
hasty  flight.  So  they  entered  the  town  "en  silence  et 
avec  une  grande  modestie,"  as  the  Memoires  say. 
Anne  Eugenie  in  particular  was  telling  her  beads  as 
quietly  and  collectedly  as  if  she  were  at  home  at  Port 
Royal.  The  good  people  of  Pontoise  were  naturally  a 
good  deal  surprised  at  the  unusual  sight  of  a  procession 
of  nuns,  and  debated  as  to  what  it  all  meant.  Mere 
Angelique  made  her  homeless  children  enter  the  first 
church  to  which  they  came,  and  very  soon  the  news  of 
their  arrival  reached  the  ears  of  some  of  the  clergy,  who 
knew  Mere  Angelique  and  hastened  to  greet  her.  Other 
Convents  sent  offers  of  hospitality  and  shelter  to  this 
peripatetic  Community ;  the  Mother  thought  it  best  to 
accept  the  offer  of  one  of  the  principal  clergy  of  the 
town  and  take  possession  of  his  house,  which  he  gave  up 
to  her.  In  the  same  quiet  and  "recollected"  manner 
that  they  had  entered,  they  left  the  church,  first  saying 
the  Office  of  Vespers,  and  went  to  their  new  abode. 
Mere  Angelique  sent  a  special  messenger  to  Paris,  and 
awaited  events  with  the  assurance  that  she  had  all  the 
Arnauld  family  with  influence  and  credit  at  her  back. 
The  religious  world  of  Pontoise  sent  beds,  provisions, 
food,  to  the  house,  and  she  established  the  usual 
"seclusion"  and  the  regular  hours  of  prayer  and  of 
work,  as  if  nothing  unusual  had  happened.  M.  Arnauld 
pere  was  in  the  country,  but  his  second  son,  Henri — one 
day  to  be  Bishop  of  Angers — procured,  easily  enough, 


44  MAUBUISSON 

an  order  to  arrest  Madame  D'Estre'es  and  to  restore 
Mere  Angelique.  And  from  the  Court  came  an  order 
to  M.  de  Fontis,  the  "Chevalier  du  Guet,"1  to  proceed 
to  Maubuisson  with  a  company  of  archers.  Without 
any  loss  of  time,  on  the  very  day  after  the  expulsion 
of  the  Port  Royalists,  the  archers  arrived  at  Maubuis- 
son. Madame  D'Estrees  and  her  brother  had  been 
warned  of  their  approach,  and  took  flight,  leaving-  behind 
some  important  papers  and  an  especial  confidential 
friend,  who  took  refuge  in  a  cupboard.  The  Chevalier 
then  went  to  Pontoise,  and  politely  intimated  to  Mere 
Angelique  that  it  was  the  King's  (Louis  XIII.)  wish 
that  she  should  return  to  Maubuisson.  It  was  ten 
o'clock  at  night,  but  Angelique  prepared  to  obey,  and 
found  all  the  clerical  world  of  Pontoise  ready  to  escort 
her  and  her  " lambs,"  together  with  a  large  number  of 
people  holding-  torches  and  thus  lighting  her  way. 
Mere  Angelique  was  known  and  loved  in  Pontoise. 
M.  de  Fontis  posted  sentinels  all  night,  and  the  regular 
inmates  of  the  Abbey  were  up,  many  of  them  preparing 
food  for  their  g-uard.  In  the  morning-  one  of  the  archers 
discovered  the  hidden  confidante,  a  certain  Dame  la 
Serre,  a  nun,  who  was  obliged  to  show  herself  with  her 
papers.  The  Chevalier  quitted  Maubuisson  with  most 
of  his  guard,  leaving  some,  however,  to  watch  the  Abbey  ; 
the  necessity  of  this  guard  and  the  insults  and  annoy- 
ances which  were  plentifully  showered  on  the  Abbey 
and  the  Abbess,  are  curious  bits  of  social  history. 
Evidently  to  some  of  the  neighbouring  gentry  Madame 
D'Estre'es  and  her  house  of  misrule  were  more  accept- 
able than  Mere  Angdique's  strict  and  holy  ideal.  The 
whole  conception  of  Religion  and  of  its  restraints  had 
been  miserably  debased  by  the  Wars  of  Religion,  and 
had  not  yet  recovered  the  disastrous  effects  on  the 
Church  of  the  world,  in  the  world's  worst  form.  For 
six  months  the  guards  remained ;  but  the  terrible 
Madame  D'Estre'es  having  been  discovered  and  again 
confined,  the  necessity  for  the  protection  of  the  secular 

1  Inspector  of  Police.     He  was  responsible  for  the  security  of  the  town 
of  Paris, 


DEATH  OF  M.  ARNAULD  45 

arm  seemed  to  be  gone.  Madame  D'Estrees  survived 
this  escapade  some  fifteen  or  twenty  years.  Her  Abbey 
allowed  her  a  pension,  but  she  wasted  most  of  it  in  vain 
attempts  to  regain  her  position  in  a  more  legal  manner 
than  she  had  yet  attempted.  Her  confederates  at  Mau- 
buisson  were  sent  to  other  Convents. 

St  Francois  de  Sales  wrote  to  his  very  dear 
daughter  Mere  Angelique  congratulating  her  on  her 
speedy  return,  and  adding  some  words  full  of  his  own 
peculiar  fondness  for  comparisons,  taken  from  the  world 
around  him,  in  which  he  compares  Angelique  and  her 
" lambs"  to  a  hive  of  bees  occupied  continually  in  the 
work  of  making  honey. 

Soon  after  this  exploit  of  Mme.  D'Estrees,  M. 
Arnauld  died.  It  was  a  great  grief  and  a  great  loss 
to  Mere  Angelique.  Ever  since  the  memorable  Journee 
du  Guichet  there  had  been  nothing  but  the  tenderest 
relations  between  the  father  and  daughter.  M.  Arnauld 
seems  with  increasing  years  to  have  become  less  of  a 
"  Chretien  selon  le  monde  " — no  doubt  for  him  as  for 
the  rest  of  the  family  St  Frangois  de  Sales  had  been 
a  powerful  influence  for  good. 

To  Port  Royal  he  bequeathed  a  large  sum  of  money, 
and  on  his  deathbed  he  executed  an  instrument  despoil- 
ing himself  of  all  worldly  possessions  in  the  event  of 
his  recovery,  and  entrusting  all  he  had  to  his  wife  and 
his  eldest  son. 

In  1620,  Bulls  arrived  from  Rome  confirming  Agnes 
in  her  office  of  coadjutor- Abbess  of  Port  Royal.  Mere 
Angelique  paid  four  visits  to  Port  Royal  during  these 
years,  and  was  present  at  the  installation  of  Agnes 
as  coadjutor-Abbess.  Agnes  by  no  means  wished  for 
this  dignity,  and  was  not  at  all  happy  on  the  day  of 
her  installation.  She  was  greatly  comforted  by  opening 
a  Service  Book  at  the  Antiphon  which  said,  "  Isti  sunt 
duse  olivse  et  duo  candelabra  lucentia  ante  Dominum." 
She  pointed  out  the  "duae  olivse"  to  Angelique,  saying, 
;<  We  shall  be  two,  my  sister,"  as  indeed  in  time  they 
were. 

Angelique  on  her  side  wished  very  much  to  leave 


46  MAUBUISSON 

Maubuisson ;  she  resisted  any  attempt  to  make  her 
the  titular  Abbess,  and  begged  that  some  one  who  was 
sufficiently  well-born  to  resist  all  Madame  D'Estrees' 
pretensions  should  be  sent  to  take  her  place.  The 
Abbey  was  finally  bestowed  on  Madame  de  Soissons, 
a  natural  daughter  of  the  Count  de  Soissons,  and 
therefore  a  lady  of  Royal  blood.1 

For  some  thirteen  months  longer  Mere  Angelique 
remained  at  Maubuisson,  and  according  to  the 
Histoire  de  Port  Royal,  she  nursed  the  new  Abbess 
through  an  attack  of  smallpox,  which  she  caught 
herself. 

But  Madame  de  Soissons,  although  she  appears 
to  have  begun  with  some  amount  of  friendship  for 
Angelique,  cooled  a  good  deal.  Probably  she  wished 
to  reign  alone,  and  Angelique  was  only  too  glad  to 
retire  to  Port  Royal,  taking  with  her  some  thirty  of  her 
spiritual  children,  whom  she  had  received  at  Maubuisson 
with  no  dowry,  and  who  in  consequence  were  not 
welcome  to  the  new  regime. 

The  Port  Royal  Sisters,  to  whom  she  wrote  request- 
ing permission  to  bring  the  newcomers  to  share  Port 
Royal  poverty,  received  the  offer  as  an  earnest  of  a 
coming  blessing,  and  Mme.  Arnauld  at  her  request  sent 
carriages  to  convey  the  party  to  Port  Royal. 

Mme.  Arnauld  was  not  at  first  quite  ready  to  help 
Angelique  in  this  design,  but  the  Abbess  told  the 
novices  to  throw  themselves  at  Mme.  Arnauld's  feet 
and  she  would  not  be  able  to  resist  their  entreaties. 
So  it  was  ;  Mme.  Arnauld  could  not  resist  the  sight 
and  sound  of  these  poor  pleading  maidens,  and  departed 
to  Paris  quite  won  over.  Angelique  wrote  in  a  few 
days  asking  for  carriages — "this  to  be  done  for  God, 
not  out  of  consideration  for  me." 

M.  de  St  Cyran  came  in  as   Mme.  Arnauld  was 

1  The  Count  de  Soisson  was  a  grandson  of  Louis,  Prince  of  Conde, 
of  the  House  of  Bourbon.  Louis  was  a  younger  brother  of  Antoine,  the 
father  of  Henri  IV.  The  Bourbons,  it  will  be  remembered,  were 
descended  from  Robert,  the  sixth  son  of  St  Louis  (d.  1270),  who  married 
the  heiress  of  Bourbon. 


ANGtiLIQUE  RETURNS  TO  PORT  ROYAL  47 

reading  Angelique's  letter,  and  assured  her  that  her 
daughter  was  wholly  right. 

Mere  Angelique  sent  her  new  troop  on  before  her,  as 
she  wished  to  stay  in  Paris  ;  and  fearful  lest  the  arrival  of 
the  new  family  might  distract  the  Port  Royalists,  she 
made  each  of  them  ticket  herself  with  her  name  so  that 
each  might  be  recognised,  and  ordered  them  to  observe 
silence  until  she  herself  came.  Which  (to  our  minds 
perhaps  somewhat  rigorous)  order  they  implicitly 
obeyed.  Perhaps  Mere  Angelique  realised  too  well 
the  peculiar  sin  of  Convents — the  eagerness  to  dwell 
on  and  be  interested  in  very  tiny  events — not  to  try 
in  every  way  to  repress  any  excitement,  any  fear  of 
gossip. 

In  her  scheme  of  things  conventual  there  was  no — 

"  At  the  meal  we  sit  together, 
Salve  tibi  !     I  must  hear 
Wise  talk  of  the  kind  of  weather, 
Sort  of  season,  time  of  year  ; 
Not  a  plenteous  cork  crop  ;  scarcely 
Dare  we  hope  oak  galls,  I  doubt ; 
What's  the  Latin  name  for  '  parsley '  ? 
What's  the  Greek  name  for  '  swine's  snout '  ?  "  * 

The  original  members  of  Port  Royal  gladly  wel- 
comed their  new  Sisters ;  and  it  is  remarked  in  one  of 
the  Mtmoires  that  what  St  Paul  says  of  the  churches 
of  Macedonia  might  be  very  well  applied  to  them : 
"  In  a  great  trial  of  affliction,  the  abundance  of  their 
joy  and  their  deep  poverty  abounded  unto  the  riches 
of  their  liberality." 

No  murmur  about  the  inconvenience  of  so  great  a 
crowd  was  heard,  and  the  one  thought  was  how  to 
carry  on  the  work  of  "perfection." 

Ang£lique,  Isabelle  Agnes,  Marie  Claire,  and  Agnes 
made  a  kind  of  conspiracy  of  zeal.  Frequently,  the 
three  last  would  think  out  a  plan  and  would  then 
submit  it  to  their  Mother,  who  would  modify  it  or 
approve  it  as  the  case  might  be.  About  this  time 

1 "  Soliloquy  of  the  Spanish  Cloister." 


48  MAUBUISSON 

Angelique  suppressed  the  Religious  Conferences  which 
had  hitherto  prevailed  in  recreation  times.  These  were 
no  part  of  the  original  Rule  of  St  Benedict,  but  almost 
every  new  order  of  religious  had  thought  them  need- 
ful. "  L'amour  du  silence  et  1'esprit  de  priere  qui 
regnoient  alors  dans  Port  Royal,  les  rendoient  inutiles 
a  des  personnes  dont  la  conversation  etoit  en  ciel." 

For  the  first  time  Mere  Angelique  was  brought, 
through  her  reception  of  the  dowerless  nuns,  into  contact 
with  him  who  was  to  have  so  great  an  influence  on  the 
fortunes  of  Port  Royal,  Jean  du  Vergier  de  Hauranne, 
Abbe  de  St  Cyran. 

But  the  period  of  his  real  influence  had  not  yet  come, 
the  influence  which  was  to  bring  out  the  character  of 
the  Port  Royal  School  of  Religion.  Severity,  self- 
discipline,  lofty  ideals  were  not  new  to  Mere  Angelique, 
and  we  have  seen  already  that  she  had  not  found  any 
enervating  softness  in  St  Francois  de  Sales.  Yet  St 
Frangois  seems  to  have  found  her  rule  somewhat  stern, 
somewhat  forbidding,  for  he  once  said  to  her  :  "  Ma  fille, 
ne  vaudroit  il  pas  mieux  ne  pas  prendre  de  si  gros 
poissons,  et  en  prendre  davantage."  To  which  she 
replied,  that  if  she  had  had  to  make  a  rule,  possibly 
she  would  have  made  a  gentler  one;  but  having  in- 
herited a  strict  rule,  she  thought  it  her  business  to  keep 
to  it. 

Angelique  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  the  Mere 
de  Chantal,  founder  of  the  Order  of  the  Visitation, 
whose  advice  she  continually  asked,  and  who  had  a 
great  esteem  for  the  Mere  de  Port  Royal.  They  met 
several  times,  and  continued  friends,  until  Madame 
de  Chantal's  death  in  1641. 

M.  de  St  Cyran,  as  he  is  always  designated,  had 
already  formed  his  life-long  friendship  with  Angelique's 
elder  brother,  M.  d'Andilly,  and  with  her  mother,  and  on 
hearing  of  her  return  to  Port  Royal  with  the  little  troop 
of  "  Poor  Sisters,"  he  wrote  to  her,  approving  most 
strongly  of  what  she  had  done.  From  time  to  time  he 
came  to  Port  Royal  and  addressed  the  Community,  and 
of  Mere  Angelique  he  said,  "  He  had  seen  many 


.      FIRST  VISIT  TO  PORT  ROYAL          49 

Abbesses  reform  their  houses,  but  he  had  seen  very  few 
who  had  reformed  their  own  characters."  But,  not  for 
many  years  did  he  in  any  way  exercise  direct  influence 
as  a  director  on  Mere  Angelique  and  the  other  nuns. 
He  made  a  great  impression,  however,  by  a  sermon 
preached  on  the  Eve  of  the  Ascension,  1623,  pointing 
out  the  relation  between  the  Ascension  of  Our  Lord 
and  the  Holy  Eucharist. 

He  also  wrote  to  the  Mother  a  long  and  beautiful 
letter,  begging  her  to  maintain  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice 
which  had  filled  her. 

Another  member  of  the  Arnauld  family  now  joined 
the  Port  Royal  Community — Madeleine,  born  1607. 
She,  like  most  of  the  others,  had  not  in  the  first  days 
of  early  youth  felt  any  leanings  to  the  Religious  Life, 
but,  according  to  IHistoire  de  Port  Royal  by  Dom 
Clemencet,  she  had  suddenly  become  possessed  with  a 
fervent  desire  for  it,  owing  to  a  dream  in  which  she  had 
seen  her  patron  saint,  St  Mary  Magdalene,  appearing 
to  her  in  a  thorny  desert  and  holding  out  a  "  Religious 
habit."  Mere  Angelique,  who  had  always  a  great  deal 
of  robust  common  sense,  took  no  great  notice  of  this 
dream,  and  tested  her  young  sister  by  two  years  of 
waiting.  But  as  she  was  clothed  at  the  age  of  fifteen 
and  professed  a  year  later,  one  cannot  think  Madeleine's 
patience  was  much  put  to  the  proof.  Youth  ended 
earlier  in  the  seventeenth  century  than  it  does  now,  and 
as  brides  of  fifteen  and  sixteen  were  not  unusual 
spectacles  in  the  world,  it  probably  seemed  quite 
natural  that  girls  of  that  age  should  be  seen  in  the 
Religious  Life. 

Fresh  undertakings  now  crowded  on  Mere  Ange- 
lique.  A  certain  Abbey  of  Lys,  near  the  town  of  Melun, 
between  Paris  and  Fontainebleau,  had  fallen  into  evil 
ways :  the  Abbess  of  the  Community  had  to  some 
extent,  at  any  rate,  been  to  blame.  To  her  had  been 
given,  as  was  the  prevailing  fashion,  a  coadjutor  in  the 
person  of  Madame  de  la  Tremoille,  who  found  it  impos- 
sible to  carry  on  the  work  of  reform.  She  sent  two  well- 
known  priests  to  ask  Mere  Angelique  for  help,  and 


50  MAUBUISSON 

Anne  Eugenie  Arnauld  ("de  F  Incarnation"  in 
Religion)  was  sent  to  be  Prioress,  an  office  correspond- 
ing, one  supposes,  to  the  office  of  Assistant  Superior ; 
and  another  Port  Royalist,  Soeur  Marie  des  Anges, 
was  to  be  Mistress  of  the  Novices.  Marie  des  Anges 
was  a  very  remarkable  person,  and  we  shall  have  some- 
thing more  to  say  about  her  later. 

She  was  the  daughter  of  an  avocat  (as  we  in 
England  would  say,  a  barrister)  in  Chartres,  named 
Suireau,  who  was  of  good  family,  but  who  had  not 
made  much  money,  and  had  become  endowed  with 
many  children.  Marie  Suireau  longed  to  enter  Port 
Royal,  and  it  so  happened  that  three  sisters,  friends  of 
hers,  were  all  starting  at  the  same  time  for  Port  Royal 
with  a  view  of  becoming  postulants.  M.  Suireau,  who 
knew  his  daughter's  wishes,  was  advised  to  send  Marie 
with  them.  They  arrived  on  the  isth  of  April,  1615. 
The  moment  Mere  Agnes  saw  the  new  arrivals,  she  said 
to  a  Sister,  "  Only  that  little  one  will  stay"  ;  and  so  it 
turned  out.  Marie's  father  died  during  her  novitiate  ; 
her  eldest  sister  then  embraced  the  Religious  Life, 
and  was  known  in  Religion  as  Soeur  Marguerite  de 
1'Ascension.  Some  years  afterwards  the  mother, 
having  accidentally  discovered  that  widows  could  be 
received,  became  a  lay  sister,  and  died  a  few  days  after 
her  Profession.  Marie  des  Anges,  as  she  was  known 
in  Religion,  came  to  Lys  with  Anne  in  July,  1623. 
True  daughters  of  their  spiritual  Mother,  they  bore  the 
difficulties,  discomforts,  trials  of  their  new  burden  in  the 
same  spirit  as  the  little  cohort  from  Port  Royal  had 
borne  their  trials  at  Maubuisson.  Marie  des  Anges 
modelled  herself  entirely  on  Mere  Angelique,  and  as 
might  be  expected,  showed  the  same  defiance  of  the 
laws  of  health  as  did  all  in  Port  Royal. 

But  after  all  they  were  not  particularly  behind  their 
generation  ;  the  details  of  self-denial  and  of  mortification 
vary,  and  the  Life  of  Religion  will  increase,  please  God, 
in  true  enlightenment  and  wisdom,  but  the  principle  of 
that  life  will  never  die,  so  long  as  our  Lord's  words : 
"  If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  and  sell  that  thou  hast,  and 


THE  ABBEY  OF  LYS  "KEFOKMED"   51 

give  to  the  poor,"  and  :  "  If  any  man  will  come  after  Me, 
let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross,  and  follow 
Me,"  have  power  to  sway  men's  minds.  As  Mere 
Angelique  had  worked  at  Maubuisson,  so  did  they ;  it 
was  a  life  of  being  rather  than  of  doing,  and  it  was  on 
the  novices  that  they  chiefly  rested  their  hopes. 

Mere  Angelique  came  to  Lys  in  1625  with  three 
more  Port  Royalists.  Finding-  the  old  unruly  Abbess 
difficult  to  control,  she  called  in  the  aid  of  one  of  her 
mother's  brothers  (we  remember  that  Madame  Arnauld 
was  the  daughter  of  a  famous  lawyer).  By  his  help  the 
Convent  at  Lys  finally  got  rid  of  the  offending-  Superior, 
and  Mme.  de  Tremoille  was  reg-ularly  installed. 

Angelique  "educated"  the  new  Abbess  just  as  she 
had  done  others.  She  taug-ht  her  to  pray  before  every 
difficulty.  "When  it  was  necessary  that  Madame  de 
la  Tremoille  should  do  something-  which,  on  account  of 
the  former  Abbess,  she  much  disliked,  she  (Angelique) 
begg-ed  her  to  kneel  down  and  offer  it  (the  duty)  to 
God,  and  ask  His  help." 

Angelique's  courtesy  to  the  former  Abbess  was  unfail- 
ing. The  Sister  Agnes  de  Marie  de  la  Falaire,  from  whose 
narrative  this  is  taken,  tells  us  that  Ang-elique  made  her 
visit  the  poor  dethroned  Abbess  daily,  as  the  latter  had 
taken  a  fancy  to  Soeur  Agnes. 

Yet,  when  the  same  Abbess  presented  herself  at  the 
Holy  Communion  without  giving' any  tokens  of  repent- 
ance of  her  former  bad  life,  Ang-elique  persuaded  the 
confessor  to  persist  in  his  determination  not  to  com- 
municate her. 

During  this  sojourn  at  Lys,  Angelique  fell  ill,  and, 
hearing  of  the  grief  of  her  nuns  at  Port  Royal,  told  them 
not  to  grieve  excessively,  even  if  she  died  :  "II  faut  etre 
genereux  et  regarder  1'eternite." 

Anne  Eugenie  and  Marie  des  Anges  returned  to 
Port  Royal  in  1626. 

Mere  Angelique  visited  several  other  Abbeys,  and 
received  some  members  of  other  Communities  at  Port 
Royal  during  these  years  which  followed  her  return  from 
Maubuisson. 


i 


52  MAUBUISSON 

Angelique  had  also  an  experience  of  a  refractory  nun. 
A  lay  sister  named  Marguerite  Agathe  du  Chesne  fell 
into  a  miserable  state  of  sullenness, — the  poor  thing 
suffered  from  continual  toothache,  and  one  cannot  help 
feeling  that  her  fits  of  naughtiness  were  due  to  physical 
causes.  However  that  might  be,  the  nun  on  one  All 
Saints'  night  slipped  out  of  the  Abbey,  and  once  out,  was 
terribly  frightened  at  the  thought  of  wolves,  so  she  went 
to  a  peasant's  cottage,  where  with  difficulty  she  got  a 
night's  lodging.  The  next  day  she  went  to  Paris  to  a 
sister,  who  took  her  at  once  to  a  Convent  of  Bernardine 
Fathers,  one  of  whom  recognised  the  runaway :  in  the 
meantime  her  absence  had  been  discovered  at  Port 
Royal.  She  had  already  told  her  confessor  that  she 
meant  to  go  away,  and  as  he  had  informed  the  Mother 
of  her  intention,  a  search  was  made.  The  runaway  was 
sent  back,  and  was  received  by  the  mother  with,  "  My 
dear  child."  It  is  sad  to  have  to  relate  that  Angelique 
could  not  win  Marguerite's  heart.  She  had  to  be 
sent  away  to  another  Convent. 

Many  stories  are  told  of  Mere  Ange"lique's  wonderful 
kindness  to  the  poor ;  and  there  is  a  singularly  touching 
one  of  a  girl  who  had  been  deceived  under  promise 
of  marriage,  and  who  came  to  Port  Royal  to  see  a  Sister 
who  was  a  relation  of  hers.  The  poor  girl's  story  came 
to  Mere  Angelique's  ears,  and  with  large-hearted  tender- 
ness she  took  care  of  her,  and  of  her  child  after  it  was 
born  ;  and  not  only  then,  but  saw  to  it  that  the  child  was 
properly  brought  up  and  taught  a  trade,  contriving  also 
that  no  word  should  reach  the  girl's  own  acquaintances. 
The  whole  story  shows  Mere  Angelique  under  a  wonder- 
fully pleasing  aspect,  so  much  more  tender  and  ready  to 
make  allowances  than  might  have  been  expected. 


CHAPTER  III 

MERE  ANGELIQUE  RETURNS  TO  PORT  ROYAL — PERIOD  OF 
M.  DE  LANGRES  (1623-1636)— PORT  ROYAL  DE  PARIS 

Institut  du  Saint  Sacrement 

WE  are  now  entering-  on  what  Sainte  Beuve  calls  the 
period  of  M.  Zamet- — a  period  over  which  we  who  love 
Port  Royal  do  not  care  to  linger. 

Mere  Angf clique  had  come  to  a  determination  which, 
in  the  light  of  later  years,  seems  to  us  to  have  been  the 
source  of  all  the  subsequent  misfortunes  which  fell  upon 
Port  Royal.  That  was,  to  remove  herself  and  most  of 
her  nuns  to  Paris. 

A  certain  Jesuit  Father,  Pere  Binet,  it  is  said,  first 
advised  her  to  move,  and,  as  one  of  the  historians 
observes,  neither  M.  de  St  Cyran  nor  St  Francois  de 
Sales  would  have  approved  this  migration. 

Several  reasons  were  given  for  the  change :  the 
accommodation  at  Port  Royal  was  far  too  limited  ;  the 
place  was  unhealthy  (but  we  should  not  think  that 
considerations  of  health  weighed  greatly  with  Mere 
Angelique!);  also,  Mme.  Arnauld  wished  very  much  to 
become  a  religious  at  Port  Royal. 

Mere  Angelique  says  that  one  day,  after  the  Profes- 
sion of  a  nun,  her  mother,  Mme.  Arnauld,  came  to  her 
and  said  she  wished  to  make  a  Retreat.  "  I  was 
intensely  glad  about  it,  being  sure  that  this  Retreat  of  a 
few  days  would  lead  to  one  of  life-long  duration.  .  .  .  She 
was  so  kind  and  so  humble  as  to  wish  me  to  conduct  her 
Retreat,  and  the  next  day,  to  my  great  surprise,  she 
knelt  down  and  begged  forgiveness  for  having  felt  angry 


53 


54         PERIOD   OF  M.   DE   LANGEES 

because  so  many  girls  had  been  received  without 
dowries."  Two  days  after  the  Retreat,  Mme.  Arnauld 
confided  to  Angelique  her  belief  that  God  had  called 
her  to  the  Religious  Life ;  only  poor  Mme.  Le  Maitre's 
sad  condition,  neither  a  widow  nor  a  wife,  made  her 
hesitate.  But  Mme.  Le  Maitre  was  overjoyed,  and  the 
desire  to  be  near  her  made  Mme.  Arnauld  more  anxious 
to  remove  the  Community. 

Probably  another  reason,  the  determining  cause,  was 
Mere  Angelique's  own  desire  to  withdraw  herself  and 
her  Abbey  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  monks  of  Citeaux, 
and  to  place  herself  immediately  under  that  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris.  It  was  a  fatal  mistake,  but  not  an 
unnatural  one.  Mere  Angelique  had  no  very  great 
opinion  of  the  monks  of  her  order  whom  she  had 
encountered ;  she  had  really  been  more  hindered  than 
helped  by  them  in  her  work,  especially  at  Maubuisson. 
The  then  Superior  at  Citeaux  was  anything  but  a 
friend,  and  disliked  the  singularity  of  what  he  called 
"  her  novelties,"  i.e.  new-fangled  ways.  "  These  novel- 
ties consisted,"  she  says,  "in  having  nothing  of  one's 
own,  in  observing  the  strict  enclosure,  in  dressing 
simply,  in  observing  the  days  of  fasting  and  of  abstin- 
ence, and,  in  short,  in  keeping  our  rule."  There  were 
worse  things  behind,  at  which  the  Mother  hinted  ;  as 
yet  the  reform  had  not  yet  extended  to  the  Monasteries 
which  supplied  confessors  to  Convents.  No  Protestant 
could  have  had  a  stronger  dislike  than  Mere  Angelique 
for  anything  like  familiarity  with  religious,  or  a  keener 
suspicion  of  those  who  were  monks  only  in  name. 

She  was  never  blind,  or  anything  but  strongly 
sensible  in  her  views  of  life  and  of  conduct.  Fortitude 
and  prudence  were  two  of  her  great  gifts.  And  though 
in  the  end  things  turned  out  badly  for  Port  Royal,  it 
does  not  seem  that  the  principle  which  had  led  Angelique 
to  put:  her.  Abbey  under  the  immediate  jurisdiction  of 
the  Archbishop  was  anything  but  right,  at  least  accord- 
ing to  modern  ideas.  Anything  more  disastrous  than 
the  independence  of  Episcopal  authority  existing  in 
many  Religious  Orders  can  hardly  be  imagined,  and  a 


V^' 

5 


REMOVAL  TO  PAEIS  55 

recent  biography  of  an  eminent  Cardinal  has  shown 
that  the  danger  is  by  no  means  an  imaginary  one  in 
the  Roman  Communion.  It  was  not  Mere  Angelique's 
fault  that  the  Church,  so  far  as  the  majority  of  French 
Bishops  were  concerned,  betrayed  her  Master  and  His 
Cause  to  the  world,  as  represented  by  the  French  Court 
and — the  Jesuits. 

Pope  Urban  VIII.  gave  the  required  permission, 
and  the  Abbey  of  Port  Royal  was  removed  from  all 
dependence  on   Citeaux,   and  the  inmates  allowed  to 
move    their    domicile.     A    house    was   bought  in  the 
Faubourg  St  Jacques.     Mme.  Arnauld  helped  to  con- 
clude  the   bargain ;    the    building    was   hastily   trans- 
formed into  a  Convent,   and  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal 
were    finally    established    there    in    1626.     Angelique 
deplored    greatly    the    absence    of    "cloture"    which 
prevailed  for  a   month    while    they  were  settling  in. 
They    were    obliged    to    see    many    people.     At    last 
permission  came  to  the  weary  Abbess  to  close  the  doors 
upon  herself  and  her  Community.     "  Que  je  suis  lasse 
du   monde,"   Angelique  said.     A  Chaplain  was  left  to 
serve  the   Church  at   Port   Royal.     This   removal  to 
Paris  brought  endless  worries  from  the  very  first  to 
Mere  Angelique.     The  house  was  much  too  small,  and 
building  had  to  be  undertaken.     A  certain  Mme.  de 
Pontcarre  lent   money,   debts  were  incurred,   and,  to 
quote  M.  de  Sainte  Beuve,  "  Port  Royal  au  temporel 
comme   au    spirituel    se  derangeait ;  .  .  .  notre  vraie 
patrie  a  nous  qui  aimons  Port  Royal,  sera  toujours  aux 
Champs."      Mere  Angelique   said,    years  afterwards : 
"After  all,  once  we  were  settled  in,  we  owed  nothing. 
We  ought  of  course  to  have  built  bit  by  bit  what  we 
could  afford.     But  M.  de  Langres,  who  then  directed 
s,  induced  us  to  borrow  money,  on  the  plea  that  the 
dowries  of  rich  nuns  could  be  employed  in  defraying  our 
debts"  (M.  de  Langres  took  excellent  care  not  to  lend 
any  money  himself  on  the  security  of  future  dowries). 
She  goes  on  to  say  that  in  all  the  anxiety  and  worry  of 
these  miserable  debts  and  the  sleepless  nights  and  the 
many  tears,  she  was  never  once  tempted  to  refuse  poor 


56          PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  LANGRES 

and  dowerless  maidens.  St  Cyran  severely  reproved 
Angelique  in  after  days,  for  which  reproof  she  was 
intensely  grateful.  St  Cyran's  prophecies  to  her  that 
her  debts  would  be  paid  not  by  rich  nuns  but  by  God, 
were  fulfilled  to  some  extent,  for  various  people  did  help 
her  in  her  money  difficulties. 

She  much  disliked  borrowing  money,  and  still  more 
she  hated  receiving  people  of  whose  vocations  she  was 
not  certain,  for  the  sake  of  large  dowries.  And  she  also 
felt  that  it  was  most  undesirable  that  any  relation  of  a 
religious  should,  on  account  of  large  gifts,  think  that 
he  (or  she)  had  a  right  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Port 
Royal.  lt  We  have  been  so  fortunate,"  she  writes  ;  "  no 
relation  has  ever  meddled  with  us,  and  I  think  God 
removed  one  who  might  have  given  us  much  trouble, 
friendly  though  he  was." 

Mme.  de  Pontcarre  entered  Port  Royal  in  1626. 
She  had  separated  from  her  husband,  and  appeared  at 
first  extremely  meek,  asking  "so  little,  and  asking  so 
humbly  as  to  make  it  seem  really  credible  that  she  was 
retiring  from  the  world  in  order  to  give  herself  up  to 
the. thought  of  salvation."  She  bestowed  a  large  sum 
of  money  on  Port  Royal,  stipulating  that  it  should  only 
be  returned  if  the  Community  requested  her  to  with- 
draw, not  if  she  herself  withdrew. 

It  was  about  this  time  (1625)  that  Marie  des  Anges 
became,  greatly  against  her  will,  Abbess  of  Maubuisson. 
The  first  wife  of  the  Due  de  Longueville,  about  whose 
second  spouse  we  shall  have  much  to  say,  had  brought 
this  about.  Angelique's  successor  at  Maubuisson  was 
the  half-sister  of1  Mme.  de  Longueville,  and  had  fallen 
ill,  whereupon  Mme.  de  Longueville  went  to  Angelique, 
requesting  her  to  send  one  of  her  children  as  a  coad- 
jutor-Abbess ;  Angelique  chose  Marie  des  Anges, 
giving  her  on  her  departure  these  counsels :  to  give 
much  to  the  poor ;  to  receive  dowerless  postulants ;  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  religious  (monks)  of 

1  The  Duchesse  de  Longueville  was  a  daughter  of  the  Count  de 
Soissons.  The  Soissons  branch  ended  in  the  direct  male  line  with  the 
brother  of  this  Duchess. 


CHANGES  57 

Pontoise ;  to  visit  the  Blessed  Sacrament  several  times 
during  the  day,  and  then  to  renew  her  dedication  of 
herself  to  Christ. 

As  we  have  said,  Marie  des  Anges  was  a  true  child  of 
her  spiritual  Mother. 

Mere  Angelique  made  another  serious  change.  She 
and  her  nuns  then  enjoyed  Royal  favour,  and  she 
requested  Marie  de'  Medicis,  mother  of  Louis  XIII., 
to  obtain  for  her  the  King's  consent  to  the  project 
which  she  entertained  of  making  the  office  of  Abbess 
elective  and  triennial.  This  favour  was  granted  in 
1629. 

Before  this  time  Angelique  had  come  under  the 
influence  of  Zamet,  Bishop  of  Langres.  Zamet  was  the 
son  of  an  Italian  money-lender  who  was  in  Henri  IV.'s 
confidence;  it  was  at  his  house  that  Gabrielle 
D'Estrees  supped  on  the  fatal  night  when  she  was 
taken  ill. 

M.  de  Langres  had  an  elder  brother,  a  gallant  and 
worthy  gentleman,  a  friend  of  M.  dAndilly,  in  whose 
arms  he  died  at  the  siege  of  Montpelier,  the  last  incident 
of  the  miserable  war  against  the  Huguenots  of  1621 
and  1622;  probably  the  friendship  of  their  elder 
brothers  was  known  to  the  Bishop  and  Angelique. 
M.  de  Langres'  early  life  had  not  been  marked  by 
piety,  but  illness  had  struck  him,  and  when  he  reap- 
peared he  seemed  entirely  changed.  He  certainly 
showed  some  marks  of  sincerity.  He  left  the  Court, 
retired  to  Langres,  and  applied  himself  to  his  Episcopal 
duties  with  much  diligence.  He  took  for  his  adviser 
Cardinal  de  Berulle,  one  of  the  great  revivers  of 
priestly  life  in  France.1  It  was  he  who  had  brought 
to  France  the  strict  Order  of  the  Carmelites,  an  order 
much  linked  with  Anne  of  Austria,  and  with  Anne 
Genevieve  de  Bourbon,  Duchesse  de  Longueville.2 

De  Berulle's  great  work,  however,  was  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Congregation  of  the  Oratorians. 

Mme.  de  Chantal  spoke  of  Port  Royal  and  of  its 

1  See  Mrs  Sidney  Lear's  Priestly  Life  in  France. 

2  See  M.  Cousin's  La  Jeunesse  de  Mme.  de  Longueville. 


58         PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  LANGRES 

reform  to  M.  de  Langres :  he  paid  a  visit  to  Port 
Royal  des  Champs,  as  we  must  now  call  our  true 
Port  Royal.  Mere  Angelique  saw  him  in  the  first 
glow  of  his  conversion,  and  after  her  removal  to  Paris 
she  made  him  her  spiritual  director,  another  mistake, 
and  perhaps  the  most  fatal  of  all.  But  at  first  all 
went  well ;  he  gave  her  sensible  and  pious  advice,  and 
finally  quenched  her  desires  to  leave  her  order  and 
enter  another. 

This  however  was  the  only  benefit  which  Angelique 
derived  from  him.  She  says  herself,  with  infinite 
humility  and  patience,  that  she  had  not  prayed  enough 
before  taking  him  as  her  director,  nor  had  even  con- 
sulted her  sister  Agnes.  M.  de  Langres  and  the  then 
Duchesse  de  Longueville  (the  same  lady  who  persuaded 
Angelique  to  send  Marie  des  Anges  to  Maubuisson) 
had  united  in  a  design  for  a  new  order  of  religious, 
whose  main  raison  detre  would  be  the  Perpetual 
Adoration  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  Mere  Angelique 
entered  into  these  views,  more  especially  as  she  had 
already  at  Port  Royal  des  Champs  introduced  Per- 
petual Adoration  of  the  Sacrament.  Rather  a  weary 
time  now  began.  The  Port  Royalists  wished  to 
incorporate  the  new  order  with  their  own,  and  the 
Bishop  changed  his  mind  every  other  day.  The 
atmosphere  of  Port  Royal,  under  the  direction  of  the 
priests  whom  he  introduced,  gradually  changed. 

Up  to  this  time  the  religious  life  of  the  Community 
had  been  simple.  Mere  Angelique  made  it  consist 
in  self-surrender  to  God  ;  she  had  dwelt  little  on  visions 
and  dreams,  on  extraordinary  penances  or  on  spiritual 
experiences.  This  was  changed.  Endless  talking", 
extravagant  devotion,  presumptuous  expectations  of 
a  miracle  to  be  worked  on  a  deaf  and  dumb  religious, 
took  the  place  of  the  "  recollection,"  silence,  self-denial, 
and  "  inwardness  "  of  the  former  time. 

From  the  lofty  austerity,  the  heights  of  spiritual 
insight,  the  simplicity  of  those  who  knew  the  "  Secret  of 
Jesus,"  the  sanctified  common  sense  (in  all  things  save 
a  due  regard  for  health),  we  descend  to  all  that  is 


WAI 

A 


JENTEKS  THE  NOVITIATE  59 

exterior,  petty,  the  atmosphere  of  that  species  of 
religious  excitement  which  has  no  influence  on 
conduct,  the  spirit  which  makes  the  commandment 
of  God  void  through  tradition  ;  that  kind  of  pseudo- 
religion  most  opposed  to  the  Gospel.  Our  dear  Mere 
Angelique  perhaps  needed  this  purification,  this  peculiar 
trial.  She  had  been  so  successful,  so  applauded  by  her 
own  religious  world,  that  she  may  almost  have  required 
the  chastening  which  came  upon  her  ;  but  one  does  not 
love  those  who  were  the  instruments  of  her  penance 
any  better  for  this  thought. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Agnes  Arnauld  wrote 
her  Chapelet  du  Saint  Sacrement,  about  which  we  shall 
speak  later.  M.  de  Langres  sent  her  and  another 
Sister  to  a  Convent  at  Tard,  in  Dijon,  and  Marie  de 
St  Claire  with  another  followed  them. 

Angelique  was  delighted  when  Agnes  first  went  to 
Dijon,  and  enjoyed  the  accounts  of  the  life  at  Tard. 
She  spoke  of  M.  de  Langres  as  a  man  "tout  en  Dieu," 
and  says  she  felt  as  if  she  and  her  nuns  had  never  yet 
known  what  Religion  was,  "se  mettant  toujours  du 
nombre  des  plus  imparfaites."  This  is  often  so. 
"Only  now  do  I  begin  to  be  a  disciple,"  finds  an  echo 
in  many  souls. 

In  1629  Mme.  Arnauld,  Angelique's  mother,  was 
allowed  to  begin  her  novitiate.  She  was  fifty-six,  yet 
she  pronounced  her  vows  as  strongly  and  clearly  as  the 
most  youthful  and  enthusiastic  novice  could  have  done. 
She  thoroughly  sympathised  with  Angelique  on  the 
subject  of  making  the  office  of  Abbess  elective,  and 
when  Angelique  resigned,  Mme.  Arnauld,  now  Sister 
Catherine,  rendered  the  new  Abbess,  a  woman  of  only 
twenty-nine  years  of  age,  the  utmost  obedience  and 
respect. 

In  1630  Mere  Angelique  resigned  her  post,  Agnes 
resigned  her  office  as  Coadjutor,  and  the  Community 
elected  Genevieve  Augustin  le  Tardif,  who  remained 
bbess  until  1636. 

The  new  Abbess  was  one  of  the  novices  whom 
Angelique  had  brought  from  Maubuisson,  but  she  had 


60         PEEIOD   OF  M.   DE  LANGEES 

been  since  then  at  Tard,  and  had  caught  its  tone  of 
thought.1  Advised  and  influenced  in  everything  by 
Jeanne  de  St  Joseph  (who  was  a  former  Abbess  at 
Tard),  she  entered  into  M.  de  Langres'  views.  The 
Bishop  disliked  the  poverty,  simplicity,  obedience  of 
Port  Royal,  and  it  is  extraordinary  how  the  spirit  of 
the  place  changed.  He — detestable  creature  that  he 
was — seemed  set  on  snubbing  and  persecuting  the 
former  Abbess,  who  had  put  herself  with  all  the 
magnanimity  of  a  great  soul  into  his  power.  He  was 
completely  incapable  of  appreciating  her.  He  was  that 
hideous  compound,  a  ddvot  and  a  worldling,  set  on 
attracting  great  people,  and  on  drawing  attention  to 
Port  Royal.  Piety  was  becoming  fashionable,  and 
Zamet  was  resolved  he  would  not  allow  his  Convent 
to  be  in  the  shade.  Angelique  bore  her  trials  with 
humility,  but  with  delightful  dignity.  She  was  a 
Christian ;  she  was  also  an  Arnauld. 

Perhaps  the  worst  she  had  to  bear  was  the  expulsion 
of  three  dowerless  inmates,  whom  she  had  sheltered, 
and  who  were  sent  back  to  a  life  of  peril. 

M.  de  Langres  grew  positively  to  dislike  Angelique, 
and  actually  forbade  her  to  write  to  her  Sister  Agnes, 
or  to  receive  Agnes's  letters.  In  the  house  she,  the 
great  Abbess  who  had  faced  Madame  D'Estrees,  who 
had  reformed  her  own  Abbey, — she,  the  friend  of  St 
Fran9ois,  the  St  Theresa  of  her  order,  was  subjected 
to  every  kind  of  petty  and  disgusting  penance.  But  at 
the  end  of  three  years,  deliverance  came.  In  a  fit  of 
religious  fervour,  after  an  illness,  Louis  XIII.  had  given 
permission  to  establish  the  Institut  du  Saint  Sacre- 
ment.  But  a  very  pretty  quarrel  now  burst  out 
between  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  M.  de  Gondi,  and 
the  two  Bishops  of  Sens  and  Langres.  The  Arch- 
bishop was  angry  because  the  other  two  were  to  be 
co-Superiors  with  him,  and  the  business  was  delayed 
for  three  years. 

At  last  he  was  won  over  by  Mme.  de  Longueville, 

1  But  Mere  Genevieve  changed  completely  after  she  put  herself  under 
St  Cyran's  direction. — Lancelot,  vol.  i.,  p.  407. 


THE  "INSTITUT DU SAINT SACREMENT"  61 

and  a  house  was  bought.  Since  Mere  Ang6lique's  first 
acquaintance  with  M.  de  Lang-res,  his  views  concerning 
this  Institut  had  changed  considerably.  The  nuns 
must  wear  a  beautiful  habit,  the  Church  must  be  costly, 
and  everything  about  this  new  Institut  should  be 
handsome  and  "modern."  Mere  Angelique  had  been 
nominated  in  the  Pope's  Bull  as  Superior,  but  M.  de 
Langres  thought  her  by  no  means  suitable.  However, 
the  Archbishop  stood  firm,  and  Mere  Angelique  was 
duly  installed.  She  brought  with  her  three  Port  Royal 
Sisters,  four  postulants,  and  a  lay  Sister.  The  three 
Bishops  seemed  to  be  on  perfectly  good  terms,  and  each 
in  turn  celebrated  a  Pontifical  Mass  on  three  successive 
days.  M.  de  Langres  was  by  no  means  disposed  to  let 
Mere  Angelique  alone,  and  insisted  on  associating  with 
her  in  the  rule  one  of  the  postulants,  a  certain  Anne  de 
Jesus  de  Foissy  de  Chammesson.  In  fact,  Anne  was 
to  be  a  sort  of  spy  on  Angelique.  She  was  a  person  of 
good  family  and  a  Canoness,  a  position  which  implied 
and  entailed  no  special  religious  vocation.  And  one 
can  only  wonder  why  Angelique  should  have  submitted 
to  such  a  command  as  this  of  M.  Zamet's,  i.e.,  that  she 
the  Mother,  an  experienced  and  middle-aged  woman, 
should  do  nothing  without  consulting  a  young  girl, 
who  had  only  just  "entered  religion,"  and  who, 
according  to  the  ordinary  rules  of  common  sense  and 
decorum,  should  have  been  last,  not  first. 

Angelique  says  of  Anne  that  M.  de  Langres  had 
met  her  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  her  mother 
(a  lady  of  noble  family  in  Champagne),  and  "finding- 
her  very  intelligent,  very  polite,  and  quite  a  suitable 
person  of  whom  to  make  a  nun,  who  would  be  able  to 
talk  to  princesses,  he  entreated  her  to  devote  herself 
to  God  in  the  new  Institut ;  and  finding  her  disposed 
in  her  sorrow  to  do  so,  he  promptly  sent  her  there." 

Mere  Angelique  goes  on  to  describe  how  imperious 
this  unwelcome  young  woman  became,  and  how  at 
length  she  wore  out  M.  de  Langres'  patience. 

When  M.  de  St  Cyran  took  the  direction  of  the 
consciences  of  Mere  Angelique's  Community,  Mile,  de 


62         PERIOD   OF   M.    DE   LANGEES 

Chammesson,  who  had  quarrelled  with  M.  de  Langres> 
put  herself  under  his  direction  ;  but  when  he  quietly 
took  her  at  her  word,  and  agreed  with  her  that  her 
position  was  most  unbecoming-  and  dang-erous  as  far 
as  her  spiritual  condition  was  concerned,  she  promptly 
threw  him  over  and  returned  to  M.  de  Lang-res. 

Angelique  gave  herself  up  to  her  new  Community 
with  the  same  whole-hearted  devotion  that  she  had  ever 
shown. 

A  storm  suddenly  burst  upon  the  Community. 
The  three  Bishops  could  not  agree,  and  Agnes  Arnauld's 
little  devotional  manuscript,  Le  Chapelet  Secret,  of 
which  very  few  copies  existed,  was  the  excuse. 

Le  Ckapelet  Secret  was  a  meditation,  divided  into 
sixteen  ''points,"  in  honour  of  the  sixteen  centuries 
which  had  rolled  away  since  our  Lord  instituted  the 
Eucharist.  Mother  Agnes  had  written  out  her  medita- 
tions in  obedience  to  her  director,  Pere  Condren,  one  of 
the  Priests  of  the  Oratory.  Each  point  had  attached 
to  it  one  of  the  attributes  of  our  Blessed  Lord — Holiness, 
Dominion,  and  so  on.  It  was  simply  a  meditation 
of  a  holy  soul,  endowed  with  the  power  of  enter- 
ing- into  joy,  of  climbing-  heights  of  mystic,  ecstatic 
devotion. 

Pere  Condren,  who  was  certainly  a  holy  and  experi- 
enced priest,  of  whom  it  has  been  said  that  "if  God  had 
sent  Frangois  de  Sales  to  teach  men,  Condren  seemed 
fit  to  teach  ang-els "  * — approved  the  writing-,  as  did 
M.  de  Lang-res,  who  liked  Mere  Agnes,  and  succeeded 
for  a  time,  at  least  to  some  extent,  in  alienating-  her  and 
her  sister  Marie  Claire  from  Mere  Ang-elique. 

No  one  except  Condren  and  the  Bishop  knew  the 
authorship  for  some  years  (it  was  written  in  1627). 
One  of  the  Mothers  of  the  Carmelites  was  supposed 
to  be  its  author,  as  a  copy  was  found  in  her  cell  at  her 
death,  and  the  book  was  approved  by  the  strict  and 
orthodox  Carmelites. 

But  the  Archbishop  of  Sens  found  it  convenient 
in  1633  to  throw  some  suspicion  on  this  kind  of 

1  See  Mrs  Sidney  Lear's  Priestly  Life  in  France. 


THE  AFFAIR  OF  "CHAPELET  SECRET"  63 

ecstatic  devotion,  procured  its  condemnation  by  the 
Superior  of  the  Carmelites,  sent  the  poor  little 
innocent  meditation  to  Rome,  and  even  wrote  a  little 
" brochure"  against  it.  In  vain  did  Mere  Angelique, 
much  surprised  at  this  outbreak,  search  for  a  copy  at 
Port  Royal ;  she  could  only  get  one,  which  happened 
to  be  at  Maubuisson,  and  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Abbess  Marie  des  Anges. 

She  sent  it  straight  to  M.  de  St  Cyran,  who  was 
at  this  time  a  friend  of  M.  de  Langres.  He  replied  that 
he  could  find  nothing  at  which  to  cavil. 

Poor  Agnes,  who  was  at  Tard,  was  not  a  little 
surprised,  not  a  little  grieved,  at  this  sudden  storm 
which  had  broken  on  her  innocent  head. 

She  writes  to  M.  dAndilly,  her  eldest  brother,  now 
the  head  of  the  family  : — 

"  I  have  just  heard  that  a  persecu^n  has  broken 
out  against  this  monastery  [the  Institut  du  Sacre- 
ment\  of  which  I  am  said  to  be  the  cause,  on  account 
of  a  little  bit  of  writing  I  did  six  years  ago,  merely  to 
express  some  thoughts  which  had  come  to  me,  without 
any  wish  either  to  use  them  or  to  speak  of  them  to  any 
one  else.  I  cannot  understand  how  so  small  a  thing 
has  suddenly  become  so  important,  and  should  cause 
this  establishment  to  lose  the  favour  promised  to  it. 
...  I  complain  to  you  of  this  sorrow ;  gladly  would  I 
exchange  it  for  something  else,  if  our  Lord  gave  me  my 
choice,  but  when  He  wishes  us  to  suffer  He  knows 
exactly  how  to  touch  us  in  our  tenderest  part." 

M.  de  Langres  took  the  side  of  the  Chapelet,  and 
induced  the  theological  faculty  at  Louvain  to  give  their 
opinion. 

Two  of  the  learned  divines,  one  of  whom  was  no 
less  a  person  than  Jansenius,  declared  the  Chapelet 
Secret  to  be  above  all  reproach ;  it  only  expressed  the 
innocent  transport  of  devotion  of  a  soul  "  inebriated 
with  God,  and  changed  into  the  likeness  of  Jesus 
Christ." 

The  age  of  the  Quietists  had  not  yet  dawned,  and  no 


64         PERIOD   OF   M.   DE   LANGRES 

disturbance  ensued.  As  Agn£s  never  dreamed  of  any 
publicity,  she  had  taken  no  care  to  guard  herself  from 
being-  misunderstood.  She  appears  rather  to  have 
inclined  to  these  expressions  of  disinterested  love  which 
are  familiar  to  us  in  St  Francis  Xavier's  hymn — 

"  My  God,  I  love  Thee,  not  because 
I  hope  for  heaven  thereby,"  etc. 

Indeed,  as  Dom  Clemencet  remarks  (Histoire  de 
Port  Royal],  those  who  treat  of  mystical  theology  are 
often  understood  in  different  ways,  in  a  good  sense  by 
some,  in  a  bad  sense  by  others.  This  has  happened  to 
Tauler,  to  Ruysbrock,  and  to  many  another. 

M.  St  Cyran  about  this  time  began,  at  M.  de 
Langres'  request,  to  undertake  the  direction  of  the 
Port  Royalist  nuns,  and  then  of  the  Institut  du  Saint 
Sacrement. 

A  revival  sprang  up,  and  the  nuns  one  by  one  made 
a  general  confession  to  St  Cyran,  and  last  of  all  Mere 
Angelique  did  the  same.  As  one  of  the  historians  of 
Port  Royal  says,  she  had  made  several  general  confes- 
sions, always  with  fresh  profit.  "  Perfection  consists 
in  fresh  beginnings,"  has  been  said,  and  said  truly. 

A  set  of  Resolutions  written  by  her  at  this  time  was 
afterwards  found : — 

1.  Every  morning  I  will  pray  God  that  I  may  live  and 

die  in  penitence. 

2.  I  will  try  in  every  lawful  way  to  quit  my  office  (as 

Abbess),  and  when  God  has  granted  me  this 
mercy  I  will  never  accept  another  office. 

3.  So  long  as  it  pleases  Him  that  I  should  remain  in 

my  office,  I  will  undertake  nothing  either  for 
spiritual  or  temporal  affairs  save  in  obedience. 

4.  I  will  converse  with  my  Sisters  as  humbly  as  I  can. 

I  will  never  reprove  them  for  their  faults  just 
when  those  faults  have  been  committed,  nor  when 
they  are  the  first  occasions  of  such  faults,  nor 
before  I  have  prayed  God  to  give  me  grace  to  do 


OF 


ANGELIQUE'S  KENEWAL  65 


it  through  His  Spirit,  and  to  help  them  to  receive 
it  as  He  would  have  them. 

5.  I  will  cease  to  watch  over  them  [the  Sisters]  so  much, 

trusting  rather  to  God's  guidance  for  them  than 
in  needless  cares. 

6.  I  will  speak  as  little  as  possible.     I  will  use  writing 

or  signs  when  it  is  possible. 

7.  I  will  avoid  as  much  as  possible  going  to  the  parlour 

[visitors'  room],  and  when  I  am  not  in  office  I 
will  not  go  at  all,  not  even  for  my  relations. 
When  I  am  obliged  to  gx>,  I  will  speak  as  little  as 
possible,  not  asking  for  news  and  avoiding  hearing 
any. 

8.  When  I  am  not  in  office,  I  will  try  to  be  alone  all  my 

life. 

9.  I  will  bear  my  infirmities  without  seeking  alleviations, 

and  will  not  call  in  a  doctor  without  being 
expressly  permitted.  If  God  takes  away  my 
ailments  I  will  do  some  penance  daily,  so  far  as  I 
am  allowed. 

10.  I  will  try  to  live  as  simply  as  I  can  so  far  as  regards 

food,  only  taking  what  is  absolutely  necessary 
and  choosing  the  worst.  I  will  not  take  fruit  or 
salad,  or  any  thing  not  needful.  And  for  dress 
and  bedding,  the  same  rule. 

11.  I  will  only  write  necessary  letters,  and  I  will  try  to 

be  forgotten  and  to  forget  creatures  [happily  this 
last  could  not  be  carried  out].  When  I  write,  I 
will  do  so  as  simply  as  possible ;  and  if  any  thing 
seems  affected  in  a  letter,  I  will  write  another. 

12.  I   will  remember  always  that  as  I  have  misused 

everything,  I  must  deprive  myself  of  everything. 
If  innocent  persons  sacrifice  to  God  the  things 
which  they  have  not  misused,  in  order  to  please 
Him,  much  more  ought  not  I  who  have  offended 
Him  in  everything,  to  cut  myself  off  from  every- 
thing. I  pray  God  to  give  me  courage  never  to 
receive  any  sensible  or  spiritual  satisfaction 
except  in  the  hope  of  His  mercy. 

Day  of  the  Assumption,  1635. 
E 


66         PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  LANGRES 

Mile,  de  Ligny  (afterwards  the  Mere  Madeleine  de 
Ligny)  tells  us  that 

"It  can  really  be  said  that  there  was  a  real  Pente- 
cost among  us,  which  changed  and  renewed  all  the 
Sisters,  excepting  only  the  Sister  Anne  de  Jesus,  who 
seemed  to  be  in  the  Convent  for  no  other  purpose  than 
to  exercise  Mere  Angelique's  patience.  .  .  . 

"Our  special  devotion  was  the  imitation  of  the  first 
disciples  in  three  things — 

"i.  Docility  in  obeying  God's  will. 

"2.  Separation  from  the  world. 

"  3.  Union  with  one  another. 

"The  Mother  seemed  to  have  ever  in  her  mind  the 
words  of  St  Francis  :  '  Perfection  consists  not  in  doing 
out-of-the-way  or  remarkable  things,  but  it  does  consist 
in  doing  ordinary  things  extraordinarily  well.'  And 
indeed  it  could  be  said  with  truth,  that  there  was 
among  us  only  one  heart  and  one  mind." 

The  same  narrator  goes  on  to  describe  the  extreme 
sympathy  and  mutual  deference  and  respect  which 
prevailed,  the  obedience,  the  absolute  quiet  and  recollec- 
tion, and  the  detachment  from  the  world.  It  was  not, 
as  Mere  Angelique  said,  that  M.  de  St  Cyran  "directed 
great  austerities  or  singular  mortifications  ;  but  what  he 
did  try  to  instil  into  the  hearts  of  those  whom  he 
directed,  was  a  real  sense  of  sin,  a  real  desire  to  please 
God." 

Even  Angelique's  peculiar  thorn  in  the  flesh,  Anne 
de  Jesus,  was  roused,  and  made,  as  we  have  said,  a 
confession  to  M.  de  St  Cyran.  She  was  extremely  sur- 
prised and  disgusted  at  being  taken  at  her  word  and 
deprived  of  the  Mistress-ship  of  the  Novices,  a  post 
which,  as  she  had  justly  remarked,  was  hardly  a  fitting 
one  for  her.  M.  de  Langres  was  rather  vexed  with  his 
protegee's  letters  on  this  head,  but  on  his  return  to 
Paris,  he  too  took  up  the  line  of  marked  coldness  to  St 
Cyran.  One  of  his  great  ladies,  Madame  de  Longueville, 
was  displeased  by  the  new  r£gime>  and  this  was  enough 
for  him.  Just  at  that  time  he  fell  ill,  and  sending  for 
St  Cyran,  unburdened  his  conscience  to  him.  As 


M.  DE  ST  CYEAN  AT  PORT  KOYAL  67 

before,  on  recovery,  his  good  resolutions  faded  away, 
and  he  began  a  desultory,  idle  life,  spending  long-  hours 
in  conversations  with  Madame  de  Pontcarre  and  his 
especial  friend,  Anne  de  Jesus. 

Angelique  was  thoroughly  tired  out,  and  she  made 
up  her  mind  to  yield  the  direction  of  the  Institut  du 
Saint  Sacrement  into  the  hands  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris.  She  asked  M.  de  Paris  to  allow  her  to  resign  in 
favour  of  the  Abbess  of  Port  Royal,  Mere  Genevieve. 
The  Archbishop  agreed,  and  the  exchange  was  quickly 
and  quietly  made.  In  a  very  short  time  Mere  Genevieve 
got  rid  of  Anne  de  Jesus  ;  this  offended  M.  de  Langres  ; 
he  ceased  to  visit  the  House,  and  from  this  time  he 
completely  broke  with  St  Cyran. 

The  Institut  was  now  in  complete  peace  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris.  A  little  bit  of 
persecution  burst  out,  it  is  true,  stirred  up  by  Anne  de 
Jesus. 

A  certain  Madame  de  Ligny  had  died  a  short  time 
before  this  :  she  had  been  a  great  friend  to  the  Institut, 
and  was  a  truly  holy  woman.  She  left  her  daughter  to 
be  educated  at  the  Institut,  and  that  mischievous  marplot, 
Anne  de  Jesus,  on  leaving  the  Institut  went  to  the 
Carmelites  and  stirred  up  the  Abbess  (who  was  a  sister 
of  Madame  de  Ligny)  to  believe  that  M.  de  St  Cyran 
was  teaching  all  manner  of  new  doctrines.  The  Abbess 
at  once  wrote  to  her  two  brothers,  one  of  whom  was 
Seguier,  the  then  Chancellor,  and  the  other  the  Bishop 
of  Meaux,  begging  them  to  take  away  her  niece  from 
those  dangerous  influences.  M.  de  St  Cyran  was  asked 
not  to  see  Mile,  de  Ligny.  He  at  once  withdrew,  and 
gave  to  the  Institut  as  his  successor  M.  Singlin,  of  whom 
we  shall  have  much  to  say.  Mere  Angelique  said  once 
of  him  that  it  had  given  her  intense  peace  when  she  was 
really  sure  that  M.  Singlin  would  not  spare  her,  and  that 
he  was  free  to  reprove  her — "but,  nevertheless,"  she 
went  on,  "  sometimes  people  are  vexed  at  being  treated 
gently.  One  cannot  bear  the  humiliation  of  being 
treated  as  a  feeble  soul,  one  does  not  even  wish  to  confess 
one's  weakness."  But  Mile,  de  Ligny  told  her  uncle,  the 


68         PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  LANGRES 

Bishop  of  Meaux,  that  she  wished  to  be  a  nun,  and  a 
nun  of  this  Community  only,  and  this  resolution  she 
owed  entirely  to  the  holy  teaching  of  M.  de  St  Cyran. 
She  told  him  how  utterly  unfounded  were  the  reports 
that  St  Cyran  was  unsound  on  the  subject  of  the 
Eucharist,  and  of  the  necessity  of  frequent  Communion. 
The  Bishop  was  satisfied,  and  left  his  niece  alone.  At 
the  same  time  Mere  Angelique  underwent  an  examina- 
tion on  the  subjects  of  Confession  and  Communion,  and 
completely  satisfied  the  Archbishop  of  Paris. 

There  had  been  some  attempt  to  restore  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  monks  of  Citeaux  over  Port  Royal.  One  of 
the  most  fervent  and  holy  of  the  Sisters,  Suzanne  de 
Henin  de  Roche,  during  the  illness  of  the  Abbess  Mere 
Genevieve,  had  tried  to  effect  this.  She  was  frightened 
by  the  lack  of  devotion  which  she  saw  in  M.  de  Langres. 
Fortunately  M.  de  St  Cyran  was  able  to  prevent  this. 
Oddly  enough,  years  afterwards,  at  Maubuisson  (where 
she  became  Abbess  in  succession  to  Marie  des  Anges), 
she  was  obliged  to  send  away  the  monks  of  Citeaux. 

Mere  Angelique  had  been  very  fond  of  Suzanne,  who 
was  a  holy  nun,  but  much  addicted  to  extraordinary 
devotions  and  novel  practices,  and  the  wise  Mother 
always  distrusted  these. 

Mere  Angelique's  letters,  which  seem  to  have  been 
collected  from  the  year  1620,  are  of  great  interest.  She 
wrote  many  to  the  Mere  de  Chantal,  the  foundress  of 
the  Order  of  the  Visitation,  who  owed  so  much  to,  and 
who  was  so  great  a  friend  of  St  Francois  de  Sales. 
She  corresponded  with  a  priest  of  Boulogne,  M. 
Macquet,  for  about  thirty  years,  and  he  seems  often  to 
have  asked  spiritual  advice.  He  was  confessor  to  a 
Religious  House  at  Boulogne,  and  she  gave  him  much 
aid  in  drawing  up  rules  for  them.  "  I  confess  to  you," 
she  writes,  "  I  should  much  prefer  a  convent  which  was 
quite  without  rules  to  one  which  had  been  half  reformed. 
There  is  more  hope  of  amendment  in  the  first."  She 
also  exhorts  him  to  have  a  priest  who  could  if  need  were 
take  his  place ;  also  she  begs  him  to  watch  over  his 
parish,  and  lays  her  finger  on  what  is  often  a  weak  spot 


ANG^LIQUE'S  LETTEES  69 

in  our  own  Communion — the  lack  of  instruction. 
"  Often,"  she  says,  "good  simple  people  are  left  without 
instruction  ;  they  do  not  understand  the  greater  part  of 
the  sermons  they  hear,  and  a  word  they  do  not  under- 
stand makes  them  lose  the  whole  meaning-  of  what  has 
been  said." 

"And  these  souls,"  she  cries,  implying  ever  so  gently 
that  the  good  Father  had  neglected  his  parish  for  his 
nuns,  "these  souls  are  as  dear  to  God  as  are  the  souls 
of  religious ;  they  are  incorporated  into  Christ  by 
baptism,  they  have  been  devoted  to  His  service,  which 
is  something  much  more  serious  than  is  commonly 
supposed.  I  own  there  seems  to  me  to  be  a  great 
difference  between  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel  and  the 
ordinary  standard  of  our  day,"  writes  Angelique,  an 
observation  constantly  repeated  in  every  age. 

Writing  to  one  who  had  a  great  desire  to  enter 
Religion,  she  says  :  "It  is  a  great  mistake  which  many 
people  make,  to  their  great  injury,  to  think  that  people 
living  in  the  world  are  not  as  much  bound  to  be  good  as 
are  those  in  Religion." 

There  are  many  letters  to  her  eldest  brother, 
M.  d'Andilly,  and  a  pleasant  little  word  occurs  in  one  of 
them  about  his  daughter  Angelique,  who  was  brought 
up  from  her  early  days  at  Port  Royal,  and  who  was 
destined  to  be  a  second  Mere  Angelique. 

Her  letters  to  her  own  "  daughters  "  are  wonderful  in 
their  strength,  their  lofty  standard,  their  profound 
humility,  which  deepened  as  time  went  on. 

"My  dear  old  friend  (ma  chere  vieille),"  she  writes 
to  one  who  was  frightened  at  the  threatening  of  perse- 
cution in  1652,  "whatever  happens,  ido  not  be  astonished, 
and  let  not  your  heart  be  troubled.  I  say  to  you  as  our 
Lord  said  it  to  His  Disciples,  He  will  be  our  support, 
if  we  fear  Him  and  hope  in  Him.  We  show  our  faith 
in  difficult  times.  When  all  is  lost,  then  all  is  gained  by 
faith  and  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ." 

She  writes  of  a  Superior  :  "  This  good  Mother  has 
plenty  of  good  intentions,  but  she  is  a  little  too  self- 
confident,  and  as  you  say,  more  occupied  to  make  others 


70          PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  LANGRES 

good  than  to  be  good  herself,  which  makes  her  run  the 
risk  of  never  doing  anything  for  herself  or  for  other 
people."  How  true  this  is  of  many  in  authority. 

Mere  Ang^lique  had  the  most  profound  self-distrust. 
She  writes  :  "  How  happy  I  should  be,  if  I  could  only 
begin  a  life  of  penitence  and  stay  in  it  until  I  die." 

Writing  of  one  who  was  causing  anxiety,  she  says : 
"  Souls  waste  a  great  deal  of  time,  until  they  are  truly 
resolved  to  serve  God  without  any  reserve." 

Mere  Angelique  had  a  great  objection  to  any  extra- 
vagant devotions.  She  hated  any  talk  about  miracles 
supposed  to  have  occurred.  "  It  is  greatly  the  fashion," 
she  writes,  "  to  wish  to  honour  God,  the  Holy  Mother, 
and  the  Saints  only  by  miracles,  and  talk.  If  only 
people  would  remember  that  the  Blessed  Virgin 
honoured  God  more  by  concealing  the  incomparable 
Mystery  which  the  Holy  Ghost  had  worked  in  her  than 
all  the  Saints  have  done  by  the  proclaiming  the  wonders 
God  has  worked  for  them ! " 

We  may  add,  in  anticipation,  that  in  1636,  shortly 
after  the  Clothing  of  six  novices  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Paris,  the  inmates  of  the  Institut,  at  the  Arch- 
bishop's suggestion,  closed  their  house  and  returned  to 
Port  Royal  de  Paris,  where  they  were  received  with 
great  joy  by  Agnes  their  Abbess,  and  Angdique  the 
Mistress  of  the  Novices. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  PERIOD  OF  M.  DE  ST  CYRAN  (1636-1638) 

ST  CYRAN  was  now  the  director,  the  guide,  the  one 
ruling-  influence  of  Port  Royal.  He  exercised  the  final, 
the  permanent  influence  on  the  spirit  and  the  fortunes 
of  the  Port  Royalists.  One  by  one  every  religious  at 
Port  Royal  yielded  herself  to  his  direction,  and  the 
Community  received  its  final  stamp.  If  St  Francois  de 
Sales  gave  Port  Royal  something  of  the  winning-  love, 
large-heartedness,  which  were  all  his  own,  St  Cyran 
stamped  on  Port  Royal  his  peculiar  sternness,  his 
"fear  of  the  Lord,"  his  "rejoicing-  with  trembling-,"  his 
complete  freedom  from  any  "  fear  of  man." 

Port  Royal  was  now  for  ever  to  be  connected 
through  good  report  and  evil  report  with  certain  great 
names — the  Arnaulds,  M.  Le  Maitre,  St  Cyran,  Pascal, 
and  many  more.  The  mistakes  of  the  years  between 
1626-1636  were  never  to  be  repeated.  For  them  there 
would  be  no  more  seeking  after  great  things,  or  great 
people,  but  the  eternal  principles  of  righteousness,  the 
service  of  God,  austere,  perhaps,  but  lofty,  pure,  un- 
touched, unspoilt  by  the  subtle  spirit  of  the  world. 
Such  were  the  Port  Royalists. 

Jean  du  Vergier  de  Hauranne  was  born  at  Bayonne 
in  1581.  His  family  was  good.  He  studied  theology 
at  Bayonne  and  at  Louvain,  and  subsequently  at  Paris, 
where  he  formed  his  life-long  friendship  with  Jansenius. 
Oddly  enough,  the  Jesuits  were  his  first  masters. 

In  1611  Du  Vergier  received  a  Canonry  in  Bayonne 
Cathedral,  and  in  this,  his  native  town,  he  spent  some 


71 


72    THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE   ST  CYRAN 

years  in  company  with  his  friend  Jansenius.  The  two 
friends  devoted  themselves  to  a  close  study  of  St 
Augustine  in  particular  and  the  Fathers  in  general,  and 
laid  the  foundations  of  their  deep  knowledge  of  Theo- 
logy, and  of  their  views  on  Grace  which  were  to  bring 
them  into  such  sharp  antagonism  with  the  Jesuits. 

Du  Vergier  passed  from  Bayonne  to  Tours  in  the 
wake  of  his  Bishop,  who  had  been  translated  to  that 
Diocese,  and  then  removed  to  Poitiers,  where  the  then 
Bishop  (who  was  a  pupil  of  the  great  Scaliger,  and 
could  appreciate  real  learning)  bestowed  on  him  the 
Abbey  of  St  Cyran.1  He  is  known  always  from  this 
time  as  M.  de  St  Cyran. 

St  Cyran  seems  to  have  come  to  Paris  about  1633, 
and  to  have  renewed  his  acquaintance  with  the 
Arnauld  family.  For  years,  ever  since  1620,  he  had 
known  M.  dAndilly  and  Mme.  Arnauld,  the  mother  of 
Angelique  and  "tous  les  notres."  We  have  seen  how 
he  wrote  to  congratulate  Angelique  on  her  courage  in 
receiving  at  Maubuisson  and  in  taking  back  with  her 
to  Port  Royal,  dowerless  nuns. 

M.  dAndilly  was  a  great  friend  of  the  then  Bishop 
of  Aire,  in  Gascony,  who  was  a  brother  of  dAndilly's 
friend,  M.  Bouthillier,  to  whom  St  Cyran  had  been 
introduced  by  Richelieu  during  the  latter's  episcopate 
of  Lucon.  DAndilly  says  :  "The  Bishop  of  Aire,  who 
was  so  great  a  friend  of  mine,  that  I  really  feel  he  loved 
no  one  better  than  he  loved  me,  often  said  to  me  that 
if  M.  de  St  Cyran  and  I  and  he  were  ever  all  together 
in  one  place,  he  would  bestow  on  me  a  priceless  gift 
by  making  St  Cyran  my  friend.  And  this  came  to 
pass  at  Poitiers,  where  M.  de  St  Cyran  then  lived.  M. 
D  Aire  took  us  both  by  the  hand,  and  said  to  M.  de 
St  Cyran,  to  whom  he  had  often  spoken  of  me  :  *  Here 
is  M.  DAndilly';  and  to  me,  'Here  is  M.  de  St 
Cyran ' ;  and  these  few  words  were  enough  to  unite  us  ; 
our  friendship  began  that  moment  and  lasted  until  his 
death  ;  a  more  perfect  or  a  greater  friendship  there 
could  not  be  in  this  world." 

1  On  the  borders  of  Touraine. 


HIS  RELATIONS  WITH  RICHELIEU     73 

These  years  (1623-1638)  were  at  first  prosperous. 
St  Cyran  was  associated  with  leading  ecclesiastics.  He 
was  a  friend  of  the  Oratorians.  Charles  Condren,  De 
Berulle  and  others,  and  no  less  a  person  than  Richelieu 
himself,  had  made  attempts  to  attach  him  to  the  party 
of  the  Cardinal.  Ever  since  (according-  to  Lancelot) 
the  days  of  St  Cyran's  residence  at  Poitiers,  Richelieu 
and  he  had  been  acquainted.  Richelieu  was  then 
Bishop  of  Lucon,  and  did  not  come  to  Paris  until  1616. 
Lancelot  points  out  in  his  Mtmoires  how  indirectly  St 
Cyran  owed  his  acquaintance  with  d'Andilly  and  others 
to  Richelieu. 

Richelieu  was  at  all  times  a  good  judge  of  character, 
and  unlike  the  second  persecutor  of  Port  Royal,  Louis 
XIV.,  he  had  a  great  liking  for  people  who  were  clever 
and  learned.  He  did  his  best  to  win  St  Cyran,  whose 
piety  he  perceived  was  as  genuine  as  his  scholarship. 
It  was  in  vain,  and  Richelieu's  friendship  soon  changed 
into  hatred.  St  Cyran  steadily  refused  various  honour- 
able offices  (amongst  others,  the  Bishoprics  of  Clermont 
and  Bayonne),  always  going  to  thank  the  Cardinal  for 
his  kindness  after  each  offer,  but  always  resolute  in  his 
refusal.  "It  is  not,"  said  he,  in  a  conversation  which 
Lancelot  records, — "it  is  not  that  I  should  not  have 
been  thankful  to  have  received  the  Grace  of  Consecra- 
tion ;  it  is  the  highest  Gift  in  the  Church,  and  I  would 
have  gone  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  for  it ;  but  one  must 
be  well  assured  that  God  has  really  spoken  to  one,  that 
it  is  He  Who  calls  and  Who  wishes  to  bestow  that 
Grace." 

Racine  says  that  this  steady  refusal  first  excited 
Richelieu's  dislike.  In  spite  of  the  great  Cardinal's 
astuteness,  he  was  incapable  of  appreciating  a  saint, 
and  tried  in  vain  to  corrupt  St  Cyran  by  flattery ; 
pointing  him  out  at  one  of  his  receptions  to  the  admiring 
crowd  of  hangers-on  as  "the  most  learned  man  in 
Europe." 

Richelieu  held  very  completely  the  idea  that  anyone 
who  was  not  for  him  was  against  him;  and  his  "cime 
damnee,"  Pere  Joseph,  was  not  slow  in  slandering  the 


74    THE   PERIOD   OF   M.   DE  ST  CYEAN 

independent  ecclesiastic,  who  was  far  too  clever  not  to 
be  dangerous,  and  whose  opposition  to  two  schemes, 
one  at  least  extremely  discreditable  to  Richelieu, 
completely  alienated  the  Minister. 

Gaston,  Duke  of  Orleans  (the  Monsieur  of  the 
Fronde),  had  married  Marguerite  de  Lorraine,  and 
Richelieu  in  1634  had  persuaded  the  Parlement  to  de- 
clare the  marriage  null  and  void  ;  in  1636  he  contrived 
to  make  the  Clergy  equally  subservient.  Sainte  Beuve 
points  out  that  St  Cyran's  opinion  was  not  formally 
asked,  but,  as  Lancelot  says  in  his  Mtmoires,  the 
Minister  was  fully  persuaded  that  he  disapproved  of  the 
attempt  to  break  Gaston's  marriage.  Gaston  had  retired 
from  France,  leaving  his  friends  to  suffer  the  vengeance 
of  Richelieu,  whose  project  in  marrying  Orleans  to  his 
own  niece  was  defeated.  The  real  cause,  however,  of 
Richelieu's  enmity  was  his  failure  to  attach  St  Cyran 
to  the  service  of  his  darling  project,  i.e.,  the  foundation 
of  a  Patriarchate  in  France — a  real  independent 
Gallican  Church.  There  were  more  offences  to  be  laid 
at  St  Cyran's  door,  but  evidently  Lancelot  considers 
this  the  crowning  one. 

After  the  little  storm  raised  by  the  good  offices  of 
Mme.  de  Chammesson  there  was  peace  and  quiet  at  Port 
Royal  and  its  daughter  house,  the  Institut  du  Saint 
Sacrement.  In  September  1636  several  Professions 
were  made,  both  of  lay  and  of  choir  Sisters,  among 
them  that  of  Agnes  Arnauld  d'Andilly,  the  daughter  of 
M.  d'Andilly,  and  Madeleine  de  Sainte  Agnes  de 
Ligny.  Agnes  Arnauld  had  also  returned  from  Tard, 
at  the  request  of  her  sister,  to  Port  Royal,  and  her 
gentle,  holy,  loyal  soul  was  at  first  greatly  stirred  by  the 
exclusion  of  the  Bishop  of  Langres,  who  had  appeared 
to  her  to  be  a  saint  of  God.  At  first  the  relations 
between  the  two  Arnauld  sisters  were  decidedly 
strained,  and  the  Sisters  who  had  returned  with  Agnes 
— among  these  Marie  Claire  Arnauld — were  even  more 
outspoken.  It  was  all  unspeakably  small  and  ridiculous  ; 
and  the  opposition  was  chiefly  due  to  Mme.  de  Pont- 
carre,  who  had  stirred  up  Agnes,  but  it  was  extremely 


HIS  TEACHING  AT  POET  ROYAL   75 

painful  to  Ang^lique.  Agnes's  eyes  were  soon  opened  ; 
a  conversation  with  St  Cyran  enlightened  her,  but  it  is 
not  improbable  that  the  Bishop  of  Lang-res'  first  visit 
and  the  change  for  the  worse  which  had  befallen  him 
had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  Agnes's  quick  perception 
that  her  sister  was  right. 

Mme.  de  Pontcarre  was  living  at  Port  Royal  in  the 
luxurious  religious  retirement  to  which  she  had  betaken 
herself.  She  created  a  party  in  Port  Royal,  gathering- 
round  her  the  discontented  new  arrivals,  chief  of  whom 
was  Marie  Claire,  who  was  in  many  respects  a  saint 
and  whose  misery  was  very  great.  It  was  just  at  this 
time  that  Angelique  returned  to  Port  Royal,  of  which 
Agnes  had  been  elected  Abbess,  by  a  majority  of  votes, 
in  September  1636.  She,  with  great  g-ood  sense  and 
discretion,  wrote  respectfully  but  very  firmly  to  M.  de 
Langres,  and  asked  him  to  cease  visiting  Port  Royal. 
Mme.  de  Pontecarre  shortly  afterwards  left. 

Agnes  de  Ligni,  in  a  relation  she  has  left,  which  is  to 
be  found  in  Mdmoires  pour  servir,  says,  in  a  description 
of  the  life  led  by  the  Community  under  St  Cyran's 
directions : 

"  We  were  taught  to  love  prayer,  as  being  the  most 
sure  way  of  drawing  down  on  us  God's  grace,  which  we 
need  .  .  .  and  particularly  to  love  the  prayers  of  the 
Church,  and  those  prayers  said  in  common."  Agnes 
goes  on  to  say  how  "recollected"  and  devout  the 
Community  became.  She  continues  : 

"  But  as  it  is  not  enough  to  pray  only  when  reciting 
offices,  and  in  set  times  of  prayer,  but  prayer  must  be 
never  ceasing,  as  we  are  taught  in  the  Gospel ;  so  we 
were  taught  that  this  continual  prayer  consists  in 
aspirations  of  the  heart,  in  the  wish  to  be  wholly  given 
to  God,  wholly  desirous  of  pleasing  Him — and  that 
this  did  not  need  much  effort  of  intelligence,  but  only 
care  to  open  one's  heart  to  God  and  let  Him  fill  it  with 
His  grace,  and  empty  it  of  all  vain  desires  and  distrac- 
tions so  that  He  can  fill  it. 

'  We  were  taught  by  the  Mother  the  great  need  of 
humility  and  of  consideration.  She  wished  us  to  take 


76    THE  PEEIOD   OF  M.   DE   ST  CYEAN 

care  never  to  do  anything-  which  could  disturb  others, 
even  in  the  smallest  ways.  A  person  who  is  really 
humble  will  take  care  even  to  shut  a  door  gently,  will 
not  always  try  to  get  the  most  comfortable  place,  and  so 
on,  always  considering  others  before  oneself." 

Mere  Angelique  did  not  wish  her  religious  to  be 
discouraged.  "If  one  of  us  fell,  she  was  to  rise  soon, 
trusting  only  to  God.  She  said,  all  things  work 
together  in  God  for  souls  who  love  Him,  even  their 
faults  make  them  more  humble,  more  distrustful  of 
themselves,  more  dependent  on  God." 

Mere  Angelique  was  Mistress  of  the  Novices,  and 
her  instructions  to  them  were  so  edifying  that  several 
professed  Sisters  begged  to  be  allowed  to  hear  them. 
She  tried  by  example  and  precept  to  fill  the  novices 
with  the  spirit  of  self-denial  and  of  charity,  and  her  own 
kindness  and  generosity  were  unbounded. 

The  Mother's  love  for  Retreat  was  very  great, 
and  sometimes  she  allowed  some  of  the  other  Sisters 
to  share  her  Retreat,  a  privilege  which  they  greatly 
valued. 

There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  Angelique  laid 
herself  open  to  the  reproach  levelled  at  Port  Royal, 
of  overmuch  withdrawal  from  Holy  Communion.  She 
owns  that  one  year,  while  Port  Royal  was  still  under  M.  de 
Langres'  direction,  she  cut  herself  off  from  Communion 
from  Easter  until  August ;  this,  however,  was  not  in 
any  way  due  to  M.  St  Cyran,  who  does  not  seem  to 
have  encouraged  or  enjoined  such  serious  deprivations. 
In  a  letter  to  her  constant  correspondent,  M.  Macquet, 
she  writes  somewhat  unsympathetically  of  those 
religious  who  profess  a  great  hunger  for  the  Heavenly 
Food.  Unconsciously  she  lays  bare  the  weakness  of 
Port  Royal.  There  was  holy  awe,  but  not  much  "bold- 
ness of  access,"  not  much  perception  of  the  fact  that  the 
Lord's  "delight  is  to  be  with  the  sons  of  men,"  that  He 
yearns  to  give  Himself  to  them. 

Marie  Claire,  the  youngest  but  one  of  the  Arnauld 
sisters,  the  saintly,  holy,  obedient  little  nun,  still  held 


MARIE  CLAIRE  77 

out  against  St  Cyran,  and  neither  Agnes  nor  Angelique 
could  do  anything-  to  persuade  her. 

D'Andilly,  who  as  we  know  was  deeply  attached  to 
St  Cyran,  was  perhaps  even  more  so  after  his  wife's 
death,  when  he  says,  "God  used  him  (St  Cyran)  to 
strengthen  me  against  the  greatest  affliction  which 
can  be  endured  in  this  life,"  and  he  remonstrated  with 
Marie  Claire. 

At  first  he  met  with  no  success ;  but  one  day 
he  asked  her  to  kneel  down  and  pray  with  him. 
Perhaps  Marie  Claire  was  already  beginning  to  yield, 
but  whether  that  was  so  or  not,  she  rose  from  her 
knees  with  new  light  breaking  on  her  soul.  Marie's 
repentance  was  that  of  a  saint.  She  had  been  led 
astray  by  extravagance  and  self-chosen  ways  of 
devotion.  Now  she  came  back  to  that  simple  self- 
surrender,  that  absolute  sacrifice  of  spirit,  soul,  and 
body,  which  belong  to  those  who  bear  in  their  bodies 
the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

She  yielded  absolute  submission  to  her  sister  and 
Superior,  Mere  Agnes,  and  little  by  little  the  bewilder- 
ment caused  by  M.  de  Langres'  unhappy  influence  was 
cleared  away. 

Marie  wrote  a  letter  to  St  Cyran  which  is  very 
touching  and  beautiful  : 

"  My  father,  I  very  much  wished  to  conceal  the  very 
great  desire  which  came  to  me  on  the  day  of  the 
Assumption,  to  put  my  soul  into  your  hands,  and  to  beg 
you  for  the  sake  of  the  Divine  Mercy  to  show  me  the 
true  ways  of  penitence.  For  as  I  recognise  how  greatly 
I  scorned  that  grace  in  the  day  of  the  blindness  of  my 
soul  and  the  hardness  of  ^my  heart,  I  feel  how  wrong 
it  is  to  aspire  to  this  blessing,  and  how  just  it  would  be 
if  God  did  not  grant  it  to  me.  But  I  confess, 
my  father,  that  I  find  it  impossible  not  to  speak  to  you, 
because  I  am  so  strongly  moved  to  begin  anew  (me 
convertir)  without  any  delay.  You  are  at  liberty  to 
refuse  me,  but  I  am  not  free  to  withdraw,  and  you 
must  command  me  to  do  so  before  I  cease  to  implore 
you.  I  have  little  hope  of  being  received  by  you,  and 
many  reasons  lead  me  to  believe  that  you  will  not 


78    THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST   CYRAN 

burden  yourself  with  a  soul  so  miserable,  so  sunk  in 
sin  as  is  mine.  Nevertheless  I  do  not  despair  ;  I  know 
the  mercies  of  God  are  boundless,  and  possibly  He  may 
lead  you  to  this  work  of  extraordinary  charity.  I  have 
some  reason  to  hope  in  His  goodness,  seeing  the  state 
out  of  which  He  has  drawn  me.  I  look  back  on  it  with 
terror,  and  all  my  life  is  so  guilty  that  I  hardly  dare 
to  promise  myself  the  grace  of  penitence.  I  know  that 
God  can  save  me,  but  why  should  He?  I  adore  the 
judgments  He  will  award  me  with  awe  and  peace, 
and  also  whatever  it  will  please  you  to  do  with  me." 

St  Cyran  was  not  at  all  of  the  school  of  either  Fenelon 
or  of  St  Francois  de  Sales.  He  was  not  particularly 
tender,  nor  anxious  to  help  her,  but  he  was  unsparing 
alike  of  himself  and  of  her. 

But  the  few  words  about  Marie  Claire  after  her 
death,  written  from  his  prison,  show  the  depth  of  affec- 
tion which  he  almost  conceals.  As  M.  Sainte  Beuve 
says,  he  was  pre-eminently  a  director,  a  spiritual  guide, 
and  he  saw  the  precise  point  which  had  led  Marie 
Claire  astray,  and  the  possibilities  of  holiness  to 
which  she  could  and  did  attain.  At  first  he  thought 
that  she  would  get  more  help  from  another  priest,  but 
one  day  he  met  her  at  Port  Royal,  and  said  :  "  I  neither 
wished  nor  intended  to  see  you,  but  having  gone  into 
Church,  I  found  myself  obliged  to  ask  for  you.  .  .  . 
Now  what  is  it  you  want  ?  show  me  your  wounds." 

After  some  conversation  he  said  :  "  Outside  work  of 
penitence  must  proceed  from  the  inward  spirit  of  sorrow, 
and  there  must  be  some  correspondence  between  the 
two.  One  must  be  careful  not  to  express  outwardly 
beyond  what  one  feels  inwardly." 

Marie  Claire  made  her  first  confession  to  him  in 
February  1637,  and  it  is  very  interesting  to  note  the 
sort  of  advice  given.  Counsels  to  inwardness,  absolute 
self-surrender  (the  mark  of  saints  in  every  age)  were 
ever  on  his  lips.  When  she  began  her  confession,  full 
as  she  was  of  penitence,  he  warned  her  to  beware  of  any 
exaggeration,  or  extreme  self-analysis.  These  words 
are  remarkable.  "God  is  a  spirit,  and  spiritual  sins 


SOME  OF  ST  CYEAN'S  AXIOMS        79 

offend  Him  most."  Perhaps  one  sees  what  he  means 
when  one  thinks  of  the  standard  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  in  which  Christians  are  taught  to  aim  at  being 
rather  than  doing',  and  in  which  sins  of  thought  are  put 
on  a  level  with  sins  of  action.  There  are  many  other 
axioms  of  interest.  He  observes  : 

"  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  direct  every  soul  in  the 
same  way ;  each  individual  soul  must  have  its  indi- 
vidual rule.  Several  things  can  be  done  by  innocent 
souls  which  are  dangerous  for  souls  wounded  by  sin, 
which,  although  healed  by  penitence,  are  not  free  from 
the  weaknesses  which  their  wounds  have  caused  them. 
A  soldier  who^has  been  seriously  wounded  may  feel  the 
effect  all  his  life  of  changes  of  weather,  and  does  not 
expose  himself  to  fog  and  snow.  I  cannot  therefore 
leave  you  quite  free.  ...  I  am  the  doctor  who  must  pre- 
scribe the  remedy.  It  lies  in  mortification,  as  you  wish. 
The  way  is^  narrow ;  to  say  otherwise  is  to  deceive. 
Finally,  it  is  an  elementary  rule  of  penitence  that 
those  who  have  sinned  by  committing  unlawful  actions, 
must  deny  themselves  in  things  which  are  lawful." 

He  has  a  word  about  the  Penitential  Psalms,  how 
suitable  each  word  is  for  the  sicknesses  of  the  soul,  and 
Sainte  Beuve  remarks  the  irony  of  his  words  when 
speaking  of  David's  penitence :  "  It  is  a  marvel  that, 
being  a  king",  he  could  be  a  real  penitent." 

Humility  was  a  particular  note  of  St  Cyran's  first 
discourse  to  Marie.  He  warns  her  against  any  extra- 
vagance. "We  are  not  saints,"  he  says;  "we  cannot 
do  things  saints  did.  We  must,  so  to  speak,  let  nothing 
appear  in  us  which  is  not  quite  usual."  This  reminds 
us  of  our  own  Keble.  1 1  is  a  thought  all  would  do  well 
to  consider. 

Marie  Claire  at  her  own  wish  became  for  a  time  a 
lay  Sister,  doing  the  work  of  the  house  and  living  a  life 
of  penitence.  At  first  she  was  not  always  happy — and 
she  turned  for  help  to  St  Cyran,  who  replied  in  these 
words,  which  find  an  echo  in  many  a  faithful  heart : 
"  Fili,  accedens  ad  servitutem  Dei,  .  .  .  prepara  animam 
tuam  ad  tentationem"  (Ecclesiasticus  ii.  i).  "My 


80    THE  PEEIOD   OF  M.   DE   ST  CYEAN 

son,  if  thou  come  to  serve  the  Lord,  prepare  thy  soul 
for  temptation." 

He  told  her  to  forget  the  past,  to  live  in  gentleness 
and  forbearance,  and  above  all — joy.  "  God  is  infinitely 
gentle  to  souls  who  are  in  the  Way;  He  is  infinitely 
terrible  to  those  who  follow  a  wrong  road.  He  does 
not  consider  the  past  sin  of  the  soul  who  is  seeking 
His  Kingdom." 

St  Cyran  is  particularly  careful  to  warn  his  penitent 
against  any  undue  trust  in  himself.  Marie  wrote  down 
what  he  had  said  to  her,  and  sent  her  notes  to  him  to 
read.  He  replied  with  complete  common  sense,  that 
it  was  right  to  keep  notes  of  what  had  been  said,  only 
she  must  remember  St  Paul's  words  about  those  who 
plant  and  water,  and  God  who  alone  gives  the 
increase. 

The  more  one  reads  St  Cyran  the  more  one  is 
struck  by  his  manliness,  his  complete  absence  of  any- 
thing like  softness  or  sentimentality,  and  also  by  his 
common  sense,  his  insight,  his  self-abnegation.  He 
had  the  prejudices  of  his  age,  the  defects  of  his  qualities, 
but  there  is  something  about  him  which  should  appeal 
much  to  English  minds,  to  all  healthy  Christians.  In 
1638,  as  we  shall  see,  St  Cyran  was  arrested,  and 
Marie  Claire  never  saw  him  again.  She  passed  under 
M.  Singlin's  direction,  and  lived  only  until  1642.  She 
spent  most  of  her  time  in  copying  the  letters  written  by 
St  Cyran  from  prison,  but  led  the  life  of  prayer  and 
work  with  never-failing  perseverance  and  joy  and 
love  and  gentleness.  In  a  letter  written  to  St  Cyran, 
she  says :  "I  receive  Holy  Communion  in  wonderful 
trust,  for  I  have  always  in  my  mind  the  Apostle's 
words — "  Habemus  redemptionem  per  sanguinem  ejus, 
remissionem  peccatorum.  ...  I  look  on  Jesus  Christ  as 
the  one  source  of  holiness."  Marie  Claire's  last  words 
were,  'victoire,  victoire." 

When  St  Cyran  heard  of  her  death  in  1642,  he 
wrote  a  long  letter  to  her  sister,  Madame  Le  Maitre  (in 
religion  Soeur  Catherine  de  St  Jean),  in  which  he 
said: 


CLAUDE  LANCELOT  81 

"  Indeed  it  is  right  that  we  should  regret  our 
departed  one  when  we  remember  what  she  was  :  it  is 
rare  to  meet  in  the  religious  life  such  souls  ^  as  hers. 
Her  good  qualities  themselves  made  me  restrained  with 
her,  for  I  did  not  wish  her  to  regard  me  with  too  great 
affection,  and  I  tried  to  avoid  this.  I  wished  her  to 
love  as  the  blessed  souls  themselves  are  loved,  more  in 
one's  heart  than  with  one's  lips,  and  more  by  feelings 
than  by  extravagant  expressions." 

It  would  be  well  now  to  say  a  little  about  St  Cyran's 
relations  with  others.  Lancelot,  who  left  two  volumes 
of  Memoirs  of  M.  de  St  Cyran,  is  one  of  the  most 
attractive  of  all  the  secondary  figures  which  surround 
Port  Royal.  One  pictures  to  oneself  the  grave,  gentle 
boy,  "an  Israelite  without  guile  "  from  his  earliest  years  ; 
passing  under  the  influence  of  his  great  teacher,  becom- 
ing in  his  time  the  noted  educationalist,  so  well  known 
that  a  Princess  of  Royal  blood  entrusted  him  with  the 
care  of  her  boys  ;  always  in  prosperity  and  in  adversity 
grave,  serene,  with  little  thought  of  himself,  possessed 
with  the  profoundest  admiration  for  the  "  Messieurs  de 
Port  Royal,"  himself  one  of  the  oldest  survivors.1 

Claude  Lancelot  was  born  in  1615,  and  at  the  age  of 
twelve  was  devoted  to  the  Priesthood  and  was  brought 
up  in  the  Community  of  St  Nicholas.  As  he  grew  up,  a 
sort  of  restlessness  came  over  him  which  he  describes 
himself  in  the  first  pages  of  his  Memoirs.  He  says  of 
the  Community  of  St  Nicholas,  uthat  its  founder, 
M.  Bourdoise,  seems  to  have  been  sent  with  others  to 
remedy  some  of  the  greater  evils  of  the  Priesthood, 
and,  so  to  speak,  to  prepare  the  way  for  St  Cyran. 
St  Nicholas  was  the  first  Community  of  Priests  ever 
established  in  Paris,  and  a  Seminary  was  added  in  1644 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Paris.  Adrian  Bourdoise,  the 
prime  mover  of  this  scheme,  seems  to  have  been  very 
kind  to  Lancelot,  to  whom  he  gave  minor  orders  ;  his 
first  little  exhortation  to  the  boy  was  never  forgotten. 

Lancelot  seems,  on  looking  back  to  those  early  years 
of  his  clerical  life,  to  have  felt  the  absence  of  real  inward 
1  Lancelot  died  in  1695. 


L 


82    THE  PEEIOD   OF  M.   DE   ST  CYRAN 

spiritual  teaching.  For  that  he  had  to  wait.  He  says 
in  those  first  pages  some  striking"  words — words  which 
bear  repeating  again  and  again:  "For  He  (Jesus 
Christ)  is  alone  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life,  and 
one  only  shares  in  His  Life  by  the  knowledge  and  the 
Love  of  the  Truth."  For  indeed  this  was  the  great  task 
of  the  Port  Royalists,  of  these  particular  leaders  of 
Religion — to  teach  that  Spiritual  Religion  is  inwardness, 
union  with  our  Lord.  Lancelot  stayed  ten  years  in  this 
Community,  but  never  could  make  up  his  mind  to  join 
it — why,  he  could  not  exactly  say.  A  sort  of  instinct 
held  him  back  from  taking  priests'  orders,  and  finally 
becoming  one  of  the  Fathers  of  St  Nicholas.  Vague 
ideas  of  becoming  a  religious  crossed  his  mind  ;  he  even 
thought  of  the  Jesuits,  attracted,  as  he  felt  himself,  by 
the  lives  of  some  of  the  noble  founders  and  first  members 
of  that  order.  But  that  design  came  to  nothing.  He 
finished  his  course  of  classical  studies  still  undecided  as 
to  the  exact  way  in  which  he  would  dedicate  himself. 
About  1635  a  certain  priest,  whom  Lancelot  does  not 
name,  came  to  St  Nicholas  and  became  his  great  friend. 
Very  soon  Lancelot  confided  his  spiritual  needs  to  his 
friend,  who  gave  him,  as  it  were,  a  little  touch  of  Port 
Royalism,  as  it  was  known  afterwards,  by  observing: 

'Your  excellent  Superior  thinks  that  you  need  only 
shout  loud  enough,  and  heretics  are  sure  to  be  converted. 
That  is  not  St  Augustine's  way  of  thinking.  I  only 
know  one  man  who  has  fully  grasped  this  truth." 
"Who  is  that?"  asked  Lancelot.  "The  Abbe  St 
Cyran,"  replied  this  priest.  Lancelot  was  impressed  by 
this  and  by  what  he  heard  of  St  Cyran,  who  was 
described  as  a  second  St  Augustine.  St  Cyran  was 
known  and  esteemed  by  the  Superior  of  St  Nicholas. 

But  Lancelot,  even  when  there  was  an  opportunity 
of  an  interview,  hung  back  and  satisfied  himself  with 
secondhand  accounts  of  conversations  with  M.  de  St 
Cyran  given  to  him  by  a  friend  whose  confessor  St 
Cyran  was.  Two  years  passed  away.  About  this  time 
two  persons  with  whom  we  shall  have  much  to  do, 

M.    Singlin    and    M.   de    Saci,   put   themselves  under 


LANCELOT  AND  ST  CYRAN  83 

M.  de  St  Cyran's  direction,  and  our  own  Mere 
Angelique  made  that  general  confession  to  him  which 
brought  her  Abbey  so  completely  under  his  influence. 
Lancelot  says  that  it  seemed  as  if  in  proportion  as 
St  Cyran  was  led  to  feel  the  need  of  penitence  for  all,  so 
in  proportion  were  souls,  so  many  and  so  different  in 
character,  led  to  put  themselves  under  his  direction. 
Lancelot  began  to  wish  to  consult  St  Cyran,  but  there 
seemed  to  be  difficulties  ;  he  was  discouraged  by  a  friend, 
who  pointed  out  that  he  was  already  in  a  Community  of 
which  M.  de  St  Cyran  approved,  and  probably  the  latter 
would  not  sanction  Lancelot's  retirement  from  it.  But, 
as  the  young  student  said  to  himself,  after  all  he  was  not 
committed  to  St  Nicholas,  and  on  the  conclusion  of  his 
academic  studies,  which  was  now  approaching  (he  was 
reading  Philosophy),  he  resolved  to  leave  it. 

At  last  the  crisis  came.  He  had  won  some  distinction 
from  his  philosophical  thesis  which  he  had  to  deliver 
before  the  University  of  Paris,  and  on  the  evening  of 
that  day,  kneeling  in  a  church  into  which  his  really 
good  and  worthy  Superior  had  led  him  to  offer  up 
his  thanksgiving,  the  boy  resolved  to  seek  the  teacher, 
who  he  felt  was  his  real  master.  A  friend  managed  to 
arrange  an  interview,  and  about  the  end  of  August  the 
two  met.  M.  de  St  Cyran  at  that  time  had  on  his 
hands  another  and,  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  a  more 
illustrious  person  than  Claude  Lancelot — viz.,  M.  Le 
Maitre,  Mere  Angelique's  nephew,  of  whom  more 
presently.  St  Cyran  listened  to  Lancelot's  story, 
and  told  him  to  be  patient  and  try  really  to  find  out 
what  was  his  duty.  After  three  days  they  met  again, 
and  St  Cyran  made  Lancelot  serve  him  at  a  Mass  which 
he  was  to  say  for  the  intention  of  a  certain  friend  of  his, 
a  somewhat  distinguished  person.  This  was  M.  Le 
Maitre.  The  Mass  was  said  in  the  Chapel  of  Port 
Royal  de  Paris.  This  was  the  first  time  that  Lancelot 
heard  of  Port  Royal.  After  this,  St  Cyran  gave  Lance- 
lot permission  to  leave  St  Nicholas,  and  debated  whether 
or  not  to  send  him  to  his  friend  Jansenius  at  Ypre"s  or 
to  his  own  Abbey,  and  at  every  interview,  St  Cyran's 


84    THE  PEEIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYEAN 

liking  for  the  simple,  holy,  guileless  boy,  so  full  of  ability 
and  of  learning-,  grew  stronger.  As  Lancelot  says, 
simply:  "From  that  time,  he  grew  very  fond  of  me, 
and  I  wondered  how,  although  I  was  so  young  and  so 
insignificant,  he  showed  me  so  much  kindness,  and 
spoke  to  me  of  matters  about  which  he  was  not  wont  to 
speak  freely  to  many  people."1 

Lancelot  was  certainly  much  favoured  by  St  Cyran's 
friendship.  No  doubt  the  great  Abbe  was  touched  and 
full  of  gratitude  for  this  gift  of  a  young,  pure  affection 
and  devotion  from  one  with  whom  he  could  claim  sym- 
pathy on  both  sides  of  his  work — intellectual  and 
spiritual. 

Lancelot  gives  a  touching  description  of  his  sister's 
Profession  as  a  Carmelite  nun  about  this  time,  a 
function  which  deeply  affected  him,  and  which  he 
described  with  tears  to  St  Cyran,  who  on  that  day 
finally  persuaded  Lancelot  to  leave  St  Nicholas.  It 
was  a  little  difficult — this  departure;  the  ties  of  ten 
years  are  not  easily  broken,  and  Lancelot  was 
very  anxious  to  hurt  no  one's  feelings  and  excite  no 
jealousy. 

Naturally  enough  no  one  at  St  Nicholas  wished  to 
lose  their  best  pupil,  who  had  brought  them  glory.  And 
M.  de  St  Cyran,  like  most  other  leaders  in  religion  who 
preach  the  stern  side  of  the  Gospel,  was  already  a  good 
deal  disliked  and  suspected.  The  " Moderates'"  always 
dislike  the  "  Enthusiasts,"  and  expect  discomfort  from 
them,  if  nothing  worse. 

Lancelot  chides  himself  for  not  having  confided  more 
in  his  Superior ;  he  says,  in  excuse,  that  he  felt  it  was 
hardly  for  him  to  set  himself  to  indicate  shortcomings 
in  that  Superior's  rule. 

About  this  time  St  Cyran  began  to  speak  of  Le 
Maitre,  and  to  tell  Lancelot  of  what  this  most  splendid 
of  advocates  had  done  in  retiring  to  a  solitude  and 
abandoning  a  career  which  seemed  likely  to  lead  to 
•much  distinction.  A  retreat  which  Lancelot  made 
finally  decided  him.  It  had  been  proposed  to  him  by 

1  Mtmoires  touchant  la  Vie  de  St  Cyran,  p/2o. 


THE  FAMILY  OF  LE  MAITRE  85 

his  present  Superior,  but  he  had  taken  St  Cyran's 
advice  about  it.  Lancelot  says  he  took  only  his  New 
Testament  and  the  Confessions  of  St  Augustine  with 
him,  and  the  study  of  these  books  and  the  quiet  hours 
of  Retreat  decided  him  to  make  the  final  break.  He 
says,  in  speaking  of  this  Retreat,  that  he  had  lived  all 
these  years  at  St  Nicholas  and  had  never  been  advised 
to  read  one  line  of  the  New  Testament  in  private,  and 
that  one  of  the  Fathers  had  one  day  observed  to 
Lancelot  that  for  many  people  the  study  of  St  Frangois' 
Vie  devote  was  more  useful  than  the  Gospel. 

If  the  Port  Royalists  had  been  allowed  to  carry  out 
their  intentions  unchecked,  it  is  probable  that  the  Bible 
would  not  have  been  so  much  neglected  in  France  as  it 
has  been. 

After  various  delays,  Lancelot  left  for  St  Nicholas, 
and  put  himself  under  the  guidance  of  St  Cyran, 
who,  after  a  few  days  decided  to  send  him  to  Port 
Royal.  Here  we  must  pause  and  speak  of  what  this 
meant. 

Catherine  Le  Maitre,  the  eldest  and  only  married 
daughter  of  M.  Antoine  Arnauld,  had  five  children,  of 
whom  Antoine,  whose  name  was  evidently  a  favourite 
in  the  Arnauld  family,  was  the  eldest.  The  fourth, 
Jean,  took  the  name  of  St  Elme,  and  had  several 
daughters,  who  were  all  brought  up  at  Port  Royal. 

The  third  son,  Simon,  a  somewhat  distinguished 
soldier,  was  named  M.  de  Sericourt,  and  became  one  of 
the  "  Solitaires." 

The  second,  Isaac,  M.  de  Saci  (apparently  an 
anagram  on  Isaac)  was,  next  to  M.  Le  Maitre,  the 
cleverest  and  most  distinguished.  He  was  a  priest,  and 
of  him  we  shall  say  much.  The  youngest,  Charles, 
was  born  in  1657. 

Antoine,  the  eldest,  was  brought  up  in  the  family 
traditions  and  became  a  celebrated  advocate,  recalling 
the  fame  of  his  grandfather.  His  eloquence  was  great, 
and  it  was  said  that  on  the  days  on  which  he  spoke  in 
court,  popular  preachers  left  their  pulpits  and  went  to 
swell  the  crowds  which  hung  on  his  words.  His 


86    THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYEAN 

popularity  was  unbounded,  his  character  unblemished. 
His  mother  seems  to  have  felt  little  pleasure  in  her 
distinguished  son's  fame,  and  to  have  prayed  much  for 
his  conversion,  and  his  aunts  at  Port  Royal  were 
amusingly  averse  to  his  marriage,  some  ideas  of  which 
had  crossed  the  young"  man's  mind. 

Perhaps  it  was  the  work  of  the  Port  Royalists,  as 
of  many  others,  to  testify  to  the  need  and  place  of 
penitence,  to  show  that  to  be  a  Christian  is  a  hard  and 
absorbing  profession.  It  has  been  left  to  another  age 
and  to  another  branch  of  the  Church  to  show  how  the 
Incarnation  has  hallowed  all  life,  all  work — that  a 
Christian,  whether  he  is  in  the  world  or  is  technically  a 
"religious,"  is  here  not  simply  "pour  faire  son  salut," 
nor  to  enter  on  a  life  of  penitence  only,  but  is  to  rise  to 
joyful  service. 

But  it  seemed  as  if  in  the  France  of  that  day  the 
sterner  spirits  felt  the  need  of  a  great  renunciation. 
And  indeed  it  is  and  always  will  be  so.  In  every  age 
we  see  that  there  are  some  who  feel  the  burden  of  the 
world's  sin  lie  heavy  on  their  souls  and  hear  a  voice 
calling  on  them  to  bear  witness  in  their  own  generation 
to  the  unseen.  "Cette  aspiration  vers  une  vie  plus 
exactement  parfaite  entraine  toujours  avec  elle  une 
certain  lutte  avec  les  choses  existantes."1 

Mme.  Le  Maitre  had  since  her  father's  death  lived 
with  her  brother,  M.  d'Andilly.  (There  are  constant 
reminders  of  the  strong"  family  affection  in  the 
Arnaulds.) 

In  1637  Robert  d'Andilly  lost  his  wife;  it  was  her 
death  and  St  Cyran's  manner  of  helping"  d'Andilly  in 
his  wife's  last  moments  which  seems  to  have  over- 
whelmed M.  Le  Maitre. 

He  was  present  when  the  solemn  words  of  com- 
mendation were  said :  "  Proficiscere,  anima  christiana, 
de  hoc  mundo,"  and  this  most  beautiful  and  awe- 
inspiring  service  seems  to  have  come  upon  him  as  a 
message  from  the  other  world.  He  went  into  the 
garden  and  walked  up  and  down  in  the  clear  moonlight, 

1  Faugere  in  the  Preface  to  the  Letters  of  Mere  Agnes. 


ANTOINE  LE  MAITEE  87 

realising  the  awful  nearness  of  the  other  world,  the 
nothingness  of  this. 

All  his  success,  all  the  applause  of  "listening 
senates"  seemed  utter  vanity.  "God  and  his  own 
soul,"  as  Pascal  says,  "were  to  him  just  then  the  only 
realities." 

He  confided  his  state  to  St  Cyran,  who  advised  him 
to  break  off  by  degrees  the  ties  which  bound  him  to  the 
world.  He  pleaded  several  cases,  rather  languidly  at 
first,  until  he  was  roused  by  some  sarcastic  remarks  of 
a  rival,  when,  as  is  said  in  Histoire  de  Port  Royal,  M.  Le 
Maitre  spoke  for  a  week  with  more  fire  and  vigour  than 
ever.  This  was  the  last  time. 

St  Cyran  seems  to  have  been  convinced  that  for  the 
fiery  nature  of  his  new  convert  retirement  was  needful, 
and  his  mother1  proposed  to  build  for  his  use  a  small 
house  near  Port  Royal,  into  which  house  she  herself 
planned  to  retire. 

His  withdrawal  from  his  career  made  a  great  sensa- 
tion, not  only  in  Paris  but  over  all  France.  It  was 
unprecedented  that  a  young  successful  lawyer  of  thirty, 
on  the  high  road  to  fame  and  riches,  should  suddenly 
throw  up  everything  and  retire  into  complete  obscurity. 
This  was  not  a  changed  career  but  no  career  at  all,  in 
the  world's  eyes. 

It  was  necessary  for  the  young  man  to  explain  him- 
self to  M.  Seguier,  the  Chancellor,  whose  kindness  to 
him  had  been  very  great.  To  him  Le  Maitre  wrote  a 
long  letter. 

Le  Maitre's  retirement  was  a  nine  days'  wonder  to 
most  people,  but  the  Arnaulds  in  Port  Royal  rejoiced 
with  all  their  hearts. 

The  astute  worldliness  of  M.  Arnauld  pere  and  M. 
Marion  seems  to  have  disappeared.  M.  d'Andilly,  who 
had  spent  all  his  life  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  Court,  made 
no  objection  in  these  hours  of  his  own  bereavement. 
His  devotion  to  St  Cyran  was  very  great,  and  he  prob- 
ably felt  that  his  nephew  could  only  work  out  his  own 
salvation  in  the  way  which  St  Cyran  prescribed. 

1  She  became  a  nun  at  Port  Royal  on  the  death  of  her  husband. 


88    THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYEAN 

St  Cyran,  as  Sainte  Beuve  points  out,  is  the  Christian 
director  par  excellence.  He,  in  this  age  of  religious 
revival,  stands  out  as  the  opponent  of  formal  religion. 

As  we  have  seen,  there  had  been  a  great  revival  of 
Religious  Life  among  the  Clergy.  St  Cyran's  great 
work  seems  to  have  been  to  vindicate  the  character  and 
the  claims  of  true  inward  religion.  He  takes  souls  one 
by  one  and  seeks,  as  it  were,  to  present  each  one  fault- 
less before  Christ. 

Hence  his  great  emphasis  on  the  need  of  Grace,  and 
of  that  Grace  as  imparted  through  the  Sacraments. 

He  is  in  no  wise  a  great  writer  in  point  of  style,  nor 
is  he  a  many-sided  man,  nor  has  he  any  love  for  Art  or 
Poetry,  but  he  is  more  than  any  other  contemporary  the 
physician  who  could  and  who  did  see  the  sicknesses  of 
souls,  and  who  could  and  did  help  those  who  asked  his 
aid. 

In  every  age  God  seems  to  raise  up  some  to  bear 
witness  to  the  eternal  and  unchangeable  facts  of  man's 
sin  and  God's  remedy,  and  of  the  importance  of  a 
change,  a  radical  cure,  in  man's  soul. 

These  truths  are  often  slurred  over,  forgotten,  and 
are  said  to  belong  to  a  bygone  age ;  then  some  prophet 
arises  to  bear  witness  to  the  Righteousness  of  God,  the 
need  of  correspondence  with  Him. 

St  Cyran,  as  M.  Renan  says,  is  one  of  those  who 
have  demanded  most  from  their  disciples,  and  who  have 
excited  in  their  followers  the  deepest  affection. 

Again,  to  quote  Renan,  St  Cyran  probed  the  wounds 
of  souls,  and  by  strengthening  faith  in  duty  through  his 
austere  discipline,  has  done  as  much  for  humanity  as 
many  rightly  named  benefactors  of  humanity.  St  Cyran 
brought  into  clear  light  the  doctrine  of  Grace,  Grace  all- 
sufficient,  efficacious. 

St  Cyran's  own  life  was  that  of  a  continual  witness 
to  righteousness.  As  Sainte  Beuve  says,  we  see  in  him 
that  independence  of  people  in  high  places  which  he 
stamped  on  Port  Royal.  Mere  Angelique  had  the  same 
freedom  from  excessive  attention  to  and  dependence  on 
great  people. 


M.  LE  MAITRE'S  RETIREMENT         89 

In  that  century  it  was  a  rare  quality.  The  spectacle 
of  St  Francois  de  Sales  truckling  to  his  Duke,  of 
Bossuet  eulogising  princes,  is  sad.  We  have  had  much 
the  same  sort  of  thing  in  England  and  in  the  English 
Church.  St  Cyran  is  absolutely  free  from  any  taint  of 
fear  or  of  flattery. 

Mere  Angelique  writes  to  a  priest  about  M.  Le 
Maitre's  retirement : 

"  I  must  tell  you,  my  father,  that  our  nephew  Le 
Maitre  has  left  the  Law  Courts  and  the  world,  for  the 
retirement  into  a  solitary  life,  God  having  laid  His 
hand  upon  him  so  certainly  that  you  would  be  very 
happy  about  him  if  you  knew  the  details.  One  of  his 
brothers  (De  Sericourt),  who  was  many  miles  away 
from  him,  was  convinced  nearly  at  the  same  time,  and 
on  his  return  here  joined  him.  Both  of  them  have  shut 
themselves  up  in  a  small  house,  where  they  serve  God  in 
a  very  special  way." 

In  another  letter  to  the  Mere  de  Chantal  (we 
remember  that  Angelique  and  the  Mere  de  Chantal 
had  been  friends  ever  since  the  St  Francois  de  Sales 
period),  Angelique  says,  speaking  of  her  two  nephews 
and  of  their  retirement : 

"  Ask  perseverance  for  them.  They  were  so  happy 
as  to  receive  the  blessing  of  the  blessed  one  (St  Fra^ois 
de  Sales),  and  the  eldest  made  his  confession  to  him." 

M.  Le  Maitre  began  his  new  life  on  January  i5th 
(the  Festival  of  the  Hermit  Paul),  taking  up  his  abode 
in  a  small  house  built  by  his  devoted  mother,  close  to 
Port  Royal  in  Paris.  M.  de  St  Cyran  was  his  director, 
and  he  withdrew  entirely  from  any  connection  with  his 
former  profession.  There  is  a  pretty  little  story  of  a 
religious  who  contrived  a  meeting  with  M.  Le  Maitre  in 
order  to  convince  him  that  although  a  man  is  converted 
he  need  not  break  off  a  good  work  after  it  had  been 
begun.  This  monk  seems  to  have  consulted  Le  Maitre 
on  some  legal  points. 

M.  Le  Maitre  gave  him  the  desired  information,  and 


90    THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYEAN 

then  spoke  to  him  about  his  own  Religious  Profession, 
about  his  vows,  in  such  a  way  that  the  religious  was 
completely  taken  aback,  and  appears  to  have  profited 
by  the  exhortations  of  his  legal  adviser.1 

M.  Le  Maitre  refused  another  application  from  a 
friend  in  a  very  touching  and  dignified  letter.  He 
evidently  recognises  that  for  some  men  it  is  possible  to 
serve  God  in  the  world,  that  it  is  only  a  certain  number 
who  are  called  to  the  vocation  of  Retreat.  'You,"  he 
says,  "pray  by  working  for  God  and  His  Church  ;  our 
labour  is  to  pray." 

Together  with  M.  Le  Maitre  was  his  younger 
brother,  who  was  known  to  the  world  as  M.  de 
Sericourt.  He  had  just  managed  to  escape  from  his 
confinement  as  a  prisoner  in  a  town  which  the  Germans 
had  taken  from  his  cousin,  Isaac  Arnauld,2  under  whom 
he  was  serving.  Both  the  Arnaulds  escaped,  running 
extraordinary  risks  and  undergoing  hardships.  Isaac 
Arnauld  was  in  time  to  vindicate  his  reputation  at 
Court,  and  his  nephew,  De  Sericourt,  found  himself 
attracted  to  Port  Royal,  where  he  joined  his  elder 
brother.  Both  placed  themselves  under  the  direction 
of  M.  Singlin.  De  Sericourt  wrote  to  St  Cyran  a 
letter  remarkable  alike  for  simplicity  and  a  certain 
delicate  charm : 

11  Sir, — If  I  might  have  the  happiness  of  seeing  you,  I 
would  fling  myself  at  your  knees  and  lay  my  sword  at 
your  feet  as  my  brother  has  laid  his  pen.  I  have  made 
up  my  mind  to  follow  the  example  he  gives  me,  and  to 
tread  in  his  steps  ;  I  have  no  other  thought,  except  that 
of  following  Jesus  Christ  as  my  general,  the  chief  and 
prince  of  penitents,  of  those  who  find  their  salvation  in 
penitence.  It  is  because  of  this  wish  that  I  have 
resolved  to  leave  the  world  and  shut  myself  up  in  retire- 
ment ;  provided  that  you  think  I  am  right,  for  I  dp  not 
wish  to  do  anything  except  what  you  and  M.  Singlin 
advise. 

"As  my  brother's  conversion  has  contributed  very 

1  Memoires  de  Fontaine. 

2  This  Isaac  Arnauld  was  a  son  of  that  Pierre  Arnauld  mentioned 
onp  5. 


M.  SINGLIN  91 

much  in  bringing  about  mine,  I  should  fail  in  due 
gratitude  to  you — as  my  brother  owes  so  much  to  the 
grace  God  has  given  him  through  your  means — if  I  did 
not  recognise  that  I  too  owe  to  you  my  conversion, 
which  is  a  consequence  f of  his.  If  I  could  obtain  from 
you  the  favour  of  agreeing  that  I  should  shut  myself  up 
in  your  prison  to  render  you  any  and  every  humble 
service,  I  hope  you  would  see  how  gladly  I  would  come. 
But,  if  I  do  not  deserve  this  favour,  please  at  least  think 
it  right  that  I  should  be  with  my  brother,  so  that  I  may 

Erofit  by  his  example.     I  know  how  much  you  care  for 
im,  and  I  should  think  myself  so  happy,  if  you  would 
not    desire   to    separate    those    whom    nature    has  so 
intimately    united,    and    whom    God    will    unite   even 
more." 

Of  M.  Singlin,  the  coadjutor  of  St  Cyran  at  Port 
Royal,  we  must  now  speak. 

Antoine  Singlin  was  born  at  Paris  in  1607,  and 
was  brought  up  in  comparatively  humble  circumstances. 
He  was  an  apprentice  to  a  linen-draper  until  about 
1627.  Then  he  was  brought  under  the  influence  of 
St  Vincent  de  Paul,  who  had  already  established  an 
order  of  Mission  Priests.  St  Vincent  saw  Singlin's 
gifts,  and  placed  him  in  a  college  where  his  studies 
were  hurried  on  and  he  speedily  became  a  priest.  He 
became  Confessor  and  Catechist  at  F Hopital  de  la 
Pitid,  of  which  his  widowed  mother  was  housekeeper  and 
manager,  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  M.  de  St 
Cyran,  who  gave  him  in  his  own  stead  as  Confessor  to 
the  nuns  of  the  Institut  du  Saint  Sacrement. 

M.  Singlin  left  the  hospital  and  spent  the  summer  of 
1637  at  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  in  that  retreat,  that 
process  of  renewing,  of  conversion,  of  which  all  who 
came  under  St  Cyran's  influence  felt  the  need.  M.  de 
St  Cyran  had  a  deep  sense  of  the  greatness,  the  awful- 
ness,  of  the  vocation  to  the  priestly  Office  ;  M.  Singlin 
realised,  as  it  were,  for  the  first  time  what  it  was  to 
be  a  priest.  Readers  of  Sainte  Beuve's  great  work 
will  remember  how  clearly  he  points  out  the  distinctness 
and  loftiness  of  St  Cyran's  views  on  the  greatness  of 
the  priestly  Office.  How  far  removed  he  is  from  any 


92    THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE   ST  CYRAN 

approximation  to  those  reformers  who  would  fain  do 
away  with  the  Apostolic  Ministry  and  all  that  it 
implies ! 

Returning  to  Lancelot,  whom  we  left  as  he  was  on 
the  verge  of  entering  Port  Royal — M.  de  St  Cyran  con- 
signed him  to  the  care  of  the  two  brothers,  and  on  the 
2Oth  January  1635,  he  arrived  at  Port  Royal  (de  Paris). 
Here  he  found  also  M.  de  Singlin  and  a  certain  M. 
Gaudon,  who  did  not  continue  in  the  "  Way." 

Lancelot  felt  all  the  joy  and  fervour  which  so  often 
attends  those  who  have  entered  once  for  all  on  the 
Service  of  Christ.  "  God,"  he  says,  "  so  disposed  every- 
thing for  my  good  and  for  my  edification  that  I  could 
not  be  sufficiently  grateful.  I  was  greatly  touched 
by  the  charity  of  M.  Le  Maitre,  the  gentleness  of  M.  de 
Sericourt,  the  humility  of  M.  Singlin,  and  above  all  by 
the  poverty  of  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal." 

It  happened  just  then  that  those  divisions,  which  we 
have  described  in  the  chapter  called  "  The  Period  of  M. 
de  Langres,"  were  healed,  and  Lancelot  speaks  in 
touching  words  of  the  dew  of  heavenly  grace  poured  out 
on  the  Community.  Several  children  were  brought  up 
both  by  the  "Solitaires"  and  in  Port  Royal  itself — as 
we  know,  Port  Royal  acquired  a  great  educational  fame. 
St  Cyran  paid  regular  visits  to  his  little  flock  and 
encouraged  the  children  or  exhorted  them  as  the  case 
might  be,  and  he  directed  or  joined  in  the  reading  which 
he  had  prescribed  to  the  Solitaires ;  he  had  set  them 
all  to  work  at  St  Augustine. 

Sometimes  there  were  lectures,  generally  on  some 
portion  of  Holy  Scripture.  St  Cyran  seems  to  have 
had  a  special  gift  for  expounding  the  Bible.  His  dis- 
courses were  not  prepared,  and  perhaps  were  all  the 
better  on  this  account. 

He  seems  to  have  been  continually  discovering  new 
treasures,  new  beauties  and  truths  in  Holy  Scripture. 
St  Cyran's  life,  his  discourses,  his  studies,  his  prayers, 
were,  as  his  loving  pupil  says,  one  perpetual  oblation 
to  God:  "Vivo  autem,  jam  non  ego,  vivit  vero  in  me 
Christus." 


M.  ST  CYRAN  AND  HIS  FRIENDS      93 

One  day — the  Feast  of  the  Conversion  of  St  Paul — 
Lancelot  specially  marks.  St  Cyran  seemed  to  be 
lifted  up  to  Heaven,  and  "he  raised  us  with  him,  for 
indeed  he  had  a  wonderful  gift  of  filling-  the  hearts  of 
others  with  rapture,  so  earnest  were  his  words,  so  full  of 
heavenly  unction." 

St  Cyran  was  free  from  self-consciousness  ;  he  spoke 
quite  simply  about  his  books  or  his  sermons ;  he  was 
accustomed  to  say  that  once  a  bit  of  work  was  done, 
one  must  lose  it  in  God,  simply  adoring  Him  for  His 
gifts. 

"  I  hardly  look  at  them  again,"  he  said  one  day, 
speaking  of  his  writings,  "but  I  praise  God  whilst  I  am 
writing,  and  I  offer  to  Him  all  that  he  gives  me." 

He  seems  to  have  tried  to  communicate  his  thoughts 
to  his  friends  to  such  an  extent  as  suited  each  one, 
according  to  his  degree  of  spiritual  advancement. 
Lancelot  tells  us  himself  how  it  was  only  after  he  had 
been  some  time  under  St  Cyran's  direction  that  he 
really  grasped  what  repentance  implies. 

"  Faire  Penitence,"  as  we  know,  was  St  Cyran's 
fundamental  thought — "  Repent." 

Lancelot  seems  to  have  felt  a  great  desire  to  deprive 
himself  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  for  a  time,  but  St 
Cyran  would  not  allow  it  for  long,  and  during  the  Holy 
Week  of  1638,  Lancelot  entered  into  full  and  perfect 
confidence  with  St  Cyran,  made  his  Communion,  and 
continued  to  do  so  regularly.  This  separation  for  a  time 
from  Holy  Communion,  as  Lancelot  says,  was  of 
benefit  to  him.  There  is  no  doubt  something  to  be  said 
for  his  view.  He  looked  on  himself  as  beginning  a  new 
life,  and  he  seems  to  have  felt  deprivation,  for  a  time,  of 
Holy  Communion  as  the  most  penitential  of  exercises. 
It  is  not  the  view  which  most  Catholics  would  take  of 
one  who  was  living  such  a  life  as  Lancelot's,  nor  does  it 
seem  to  fit  in  with  Catholic  teaching  on  Grace.  But 
one  must  always  remember  that  after  the  first  age  of  the 
Church  the  practice  as  to  frequent  or  infrequent  Com- 
munion has  varied  with  varying  ages,  the  one  point 
of  agreement  being — the  extreme  danger  of  an  un- 


94    THE  PERIOD  OF  M.   DE   ST  CYRAN 

worthy    reception,    the    wonderful    grace    of    a    good 
Communion. 

But  this  happy,  peaceful  life  was  soon  to  be  interrupted. 
Richelieu,  as  we  know,  had  no  good  opinion  of  St  Cyran, 
and  would  brook  no  dangerous  interference  either  in 
theology  or  secular  affairs.  St  Cyran  had  ventured  to 
say  that  contrition  was  needful  for  a  worthy  reception  of 
the  Sacrament  of  Penitence  ;  Richelieu  had  affirmed  in 
his  Catechism  (published  when  he  was  Bishop  of  Lucon) 
that  attrition  (a  fear  of  God  or  rather  a  fear  of  the 
penalties  of  sin)  was  enough.  To  put  it  shortly,  perfect 
contrition  is  that  of  which  the  motives  are  perfect, 
because  it  comes  from  the  Love  of  God.  Attrition  is 
imperfect  contrition,  and  comes  from  imperfect  motives. 
Renan  has  one  of  his  penetrating  remarks  on  this  : 
"Quand  Richelieu  faisait  emprisonner  Saint  Cyran  pour 
avoir  soutenu  que  I'amour  de  Dieu  etait  necessaire — le 
cardinal  n'£tait  pue"ril  que  dans  1'apparence.  Louis 

XIII.  qui  avouait  naivement  ne  pas  aimer  Dieu,  echap- 
pait  a  son  confesseur  et  par  consequent  au  cardinal.     Si 
la  doctrine  de  1'abbe"   prevalait,   cette  substitution  de 
Thomme  a  Dieu,  et  si  j'ose  le  dire,  cette  suppression  de 
la   Divinite*    etant  le  grand  mal  qui   mine  sans   cesse 
1'ceuvre  du  Christ,  toute  reforme  du  Christianisme,  tout 
r£veil  de  1'esprit  Chretien  a  consiste  dans  un  retour  a  la 
severe  doctrine  de  la  grace." 

The  fact  is — religion  is  an  affair  of  the  soul,  and 
there  will  be  always  revolts  against  official  religion, 
whether  that  religion  be  Sacramental  or  Protestant. 
Anything  more  revolting  than  the  spectacle  of  royal 
religion  as  seen  in  Louis  XIII.  and  still  more  in  Louis 

XIV.  can  hardly  be  conceived.     I  n  the  same  essay  which 
I  have  just  quoted,  Renan  says:  "  Les  Religieuses  de 
Port   Royal  .  .  .  ont  sauve  la  conscience.     Avec  son 
s£rail  insolemment   etale  a  la   face  de  la   Chretiente', 
Louis  XIV.  met  autant  qu'il  dependait  de  lui,  la  mora- 
lite  fran^aise  a  deux  doigts  de  celle  de  TOrient." 

Richelieu's  attention  had  again  been  directed  to  St 
Cyran  by  M.  Le  Maitre's  conversion,  and  he  resolved  to 
get  rid  of  this  "  turbulent  priest."  Nothing  was  easier 


ST  CYKAN'S  ARKEST  95 

in  the  France  of  those  days  than  to  remove  an  incon- 
venient person.  A  "lettre  de  cachet,"  an  order  to  the 
Guard,  and  the  troublesome  person  was  arrested  and 
confined  in  a  prison — the  Bois  de  Vincennes,  or  the 
Bastille — without  a  trial,  and  left  there  as  long  as  it 
suited  the  convenience  of  those  who  sent  him.  M.  de 
St  Cyran  had  some  idea  of  coming  danger,  but  he  went 
on  his  usual  way  until  Ascension  Day,  1638.  On  that 
day  he  said  Mass  as  usual  at  Port  Royal,  and  gave  three 
addresses  to  his  loved  pupils,  the  Solitaires.  He  seems 
to  have  felt  a  special  presentiment  of  danger,  for  he  said 
to  M.  Le  Maftre  :  "  To-day  it  is  almost  too  bright,  I 
cannot  answer  for  to-morrow." 

It  is  a  pathetic  picture,  a  few  holy  men  gathered 
together  for  prayer  and  study,  interrupted,  persecuted, 
by  the  official  representatives  of  the  religion  of  the  day. 
In  the  evening,  reading  as  was  his  custom  a  portion  of 
Holy  Scripture,  he  came  on  Jeremiah  xxvi.  14,  "  Ecce  in 
manibus  vestris  sum,  facite  mihi  quod  bonum  et  rectum 
est  in  oculis  vestris."  "  That  is  for  me,"  said  St  Cyran. 
About  two  in  the  morning  his  house  was  surrounded  by 
twenty-two  guards.  They  saw  that  all  was  quiet,  and 
waited  until  6  A.M.  Then  came  knockings  and  inquiries 
for  M.  de  St  Cyran,  who  was  up  and  reading  his  beloved 
St  Augustine  ;  oddly  enough,  he  had  fallen  on  a  passage 
concerning  contrition.  The  "  Chevalier  du  Guet "  came 
in,  was  extremely  civil,  and  asked  or  rather  ordered 
M.  de  St  Cyran  to  enter  a  carnage  which  stood  outside. 
It  so  happened  that  M.  d'Andilly  was  leaving  Paris  that 
day  to  go  to  his  country  estate,  and  seemingly  by 
accident  met  St  Cyran,  to  whom  he  had  said  a  tem- 
porary farewell  the  day  before.  D'Andilly  suspected 
nothing,  for  the  guards  had  arranged  themselves  so  as 
not  to  make  it  apparent  that  they  were  in  charge  of  a 
State  prisoner.  He  came  up  to  the  carriage  and  asked 
cheerfully  where  in  the  world  St  Cyran  was  taking  all 
these  people.  "They  are  in  charge  of  me,  not  I  of 
them  ;  but  I  feel  I  am  in  God's  presence,  not  man's," 
replied  St  Cyran ;  "all  the  same,"  he  went  on,  "they 
were  in  such  a  hurry,  I  had  no  time  to  pick  up  a  book." 


96    THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

M.  d'Andilly  was  reading  St  Augustine's  Confes- 
sions, and  hastily  put  the  book  into  his  friend's  hands. 
Then  he  said :  "  You  gave  me  this,  now  I  give  it  you 
back."  The  friends  embraced  as  friends  do  who  pos- 
sibly may  not  meet  again,  and  St  Cyran  was  conducted 
to  the  Bois  de  Vincennes. 

At  first  St  Cyran  was  harshly  treated,  but  in  a  few 
days  he  was  allowed  the  indulgence  of  a  servant ;  poor 
Lancelot  wished  much  that  he  could  have  been  allowed 
to  wait  on  his  master.  Those  first  days  of  imprisonment 
were  sad  enough.  Like  many  another  servant  of  God, 
St  Cyran  felt  the  horror  of  spiritual  desolation,  and  he 
spent  a  sad,  oppressed  Whitsuntide.  Light  came  to 
him,  and  as  he  said  afterwards,  the  words  of  Psalm  ix. 
were  true  of  him — "Thou  that  liftest  me  up  from  the 
gates  of  death."  Spiritual  trials  passed  away,  and  the 
peace  of  God  was  granted  in  full  measure. 

He  was  kept  for  some  time  without  any  news  of  his 
friends,  but  every  day  someone  went  to  the  prison  to 
ask  for  him  :  the  faithful  Lancelot  tells  us  how  overjoyed 
he  was  when  the  soldier  whom  he  had  asked  for  news 
of  St  Cyran  gave  him  a  message — "  Tell  him  to  pray 
for  me,  and  to  remember  all  I  have  told  him."  The 
gentle,  enthusiastic  Claude  sent  a  message — "  I  would 
remember  him  all  my  life,  would  he  always  remember 
me  in  his  prayers,  and  I  would  try  to  carry  out  in  my 
life  what  he  had  taught  me." 

Then  Lancelot  went  away,  saying  the  Office  of 
None  and  turning  back  to  the  prison  with  longing 
looks,  repeating  the  verses,  "  Principes  persecuti  sunt 
me  gratis"  (Princes  have  persecuted  me  without  a 
cause). 

Richelieu  in  the  meantime  was  desirous  of  getting 
some  information  as  to  his  prisoner's  state  of  mind, 
and  hit  on  the  somewhat  odd  plan  of  sending  his  niece, 
the  Duchess  DAiguillon,  to  see  M.  de  Cyran,  advising 
her  to  persuade  dAndilly  to  go  with  her.  M.  dAndilly 
was  held  in  great  respect  at  Court,  and  it  is  said  that 
when  Richelieu  and  his  creature  Pere  Joseph,  together 
with  the  Secretary  of  State,  M.  Sublet  Des  Noyers, 


EFFOETS  TO  EELEASE  ST  CYEAN   97 

were  deciding"  on  St  Cyran's  arrest,  one  of  the  worthy 
trio  said  :  "What  will  M.  dAndilly  say?"  Accordingly 
Madame  DAiguillon,  accompanied  by  the  well-known 
Mme.  de  Rambouillet,  met  dAndilly  in  the  park  at 
Vincennes,  he  being"  accompanied  by  his  eldest  son, 
afterwards  the  Abbe  de  Chaumes. 

It  is  a  queer  little  episode,  a  number  of  decidedly 
fashionable  people  paying-  a  visit  to  a  prisoner  whose 
only  crime  was — that  he  took  different  and  stricter 
views  on  the  subject  of  penitence  than  did  the  powerful 
Minister.  Of  course  that  best  and  most  loyal  of  friends, 
M.  dAndilly,  put  St  Cyran's  mind  at  rest  about  his 
papers  and  his  friends.  Naturally  enough,  nothing- 
satisfactory  for  Richelieu  was  elicited ;  everyone  was 
very  polite,  and  St  Cyran  perfectly  calm  and  resigned. 
His  papers  had  been  burned,  or  had  been  taken  to  the 
Chancellor,  who  was  dismayed  at  the  mass  of  manu- 
scripts which  it  was  his  task  to  examine.  He  did 
examine  some,  and  wrote  to  M.  dAndilly,  that  sure  and 
safe  receptacle  for  confidences,  that  he  had  found  some 
meditations,  which  he  had  been  reading,  simply  admir- 
able. A  gx)od  deal  of  MS.  had  been  left  behind,  and 
St  Cyran's  nephew,  M.  de  Barcos,  with  unnecessary 
caution,  burnt  much  of  it. 

St  Cyran's  arrest  made  a  great  sensation,  of  which 
Richelieu  was  not  unaware.  Various  people  of  repute 
pleaded  vainly  for  St  Cyran  ;  among-  them  M.  Matthieu 
Mole,  who  perhaps  is  known  to  most  people  on  account 
of  his  being-  forced  into  prominence  in  the  evil  days  of  the 
Fronde,  when  he  was  president  of  the  Paris  Parlement. 
M.  Mole  pressed  Richelieu  very  hard,  but  with  no  effect. 
M.  Mole  had  managed  to  get  hold  of  a  copy  of  St 
Cyr&risAdmonitto  ad Imperatorem,  a  criticism  of  a  viru- 
lent brochure  entitled  Admonitio  ad  Regem,  attributed 
to  a  Jesuit.  Peace  had  been  concluded  between  France 
and  the  Empire  before  St  Cyran  had  published  his 
criticism,  and  he  did  not  know  that  M.  Mole  had 
caused  a  copy  to  be  made  of  the  MS.  which  had  been 
lent  to  him  by  the  author.  M.  Mole"  now  produced  this 
work  to  prove  how  unfounded  were  the  vague  accusa- 

G 


98     THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE   ST  CYRAN 

tions  of  the  prisoner's  political  crimes.  In  the  early 
days  of  his  imprisonment  St  Cyran  was  not  able  to  write 
so  much  as  he  did  later,  but  he  found  himself  obliged 
to  send  a  word  to  his  dear  spiritual  son,  M.  Le  M  ait  re. 
As  the  chronicler  says,  M.  Le  Maltre  wrote  to  M. 
St  Cyran  a  letter  expressing  some  of  the  sorrow  he  felt, 
to  which  St  Cyran  replied  : 

"Sir  [how  formal  the  "  Monsieur"  appears  to  our 
more  expansive  age!], — "  I  am  more  than  glad  at  what 
you  say,  that  your  retirement  was  the  cause  of  my 
imprisonment.  If  a  hundred  such  opportunities  were  to 
be  given  to  me,  I  could  not  do  otherwise ;  and  I  am 
indeed  grateful  to  God's  grace  for  keeping  me  firm  to 
the  rule  of  faith,  and  making  me  shut  my  eyes  to  the 
past  and  future,  for  it  would  have  been  easy  to  foresee 
and  avoid  [what  has  happened]  if  I  had  had  recourse 
only  to  human  reason.  If  I  had  not  responded  to  God 
in f this,  I  should  have  been  ruined  beyond  remedy.  If 
this  has  really  been  the  cause  of  my  imprisonment,  I  am 
the  most  fortunate  of  men.  If  it  pleased  God  to  send 
me  others  who  were  as  similarly  disposed  to  believe  me 
as  you  were,  I  should  give  them  the  same  advice,  or 
rather  I  should  strengthen  them  in  the  same  resolution, 
which,  like  you,  they  had  already  taken ;  and  this  with 
even  more  boldness,  if  I  were  certain  I  should  be  sent 
to  the  .stake  ...  I  am  surprised  at  nothing  except  this, 
that  in  the  full  light  of  the  Church,  separation  from  the 
world,  which  is  one  of  the  fundamental  precepts  of  the 
Gospel,  is  held  to  be  a  misuse  of  the  Gospel  or  an 
excess  of  devotion." 

Jansensius,  the  author  of  that  tremendously  ponder- 
ous and,  nowadays  at  least,  little  read  volume,  Augus- 
tinuSy  died  in  1638.  With  his  name  the  later  Port 
Royalists  are  constantly  identified.  Around  this  book 
grew  up  that  lengthy  and  much-to-be-lamented  contro- 
versy with  which  one  feels  that  the  unfortunate  inmates 
of  the  Abbey  had  nothing  to  do,  and  in  which  the  rights 
and  wrongs  were  not  and  cannot  be  equally  divided. 
Jansensius  may  be  in  complete  accordance  with  St 
Augustine,  but  St  Augustine  is  not  Holy  Scripture,  nor 
is  he  the  voice  of  the  universal  Church,  and  in  his 


THE  AUGUSTINUS  99 

opposition  to  Pelagianism  he  took  up  a  position  which 
the  undivided  Church  does  not  defend. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Jesuits,  as  we  shall  presently 
see,  are  always  inclined  to  push  the  dogma  of  Free  Will 
to  an  extraordinary  length.  Truth,  as  usual,  lies  in  the 
mean.  The  Grace  of  God  is  all-powerful,  but  God 
chooses  to  make  our  co-operation  with  His  Grace  a 
necessary  part  of  our  salvation.  But,  as  has  been  well 
said — "  No  wise  man  attempts  to  find  a  precise  solution 
for  the  eternal  antinomy  of  Freedom  and  Necessity." 
It  is  enough  to  point  out  what  the  Alexandrians  did. 
"In  their  recoil  from  Gnosticism  the  Alexandrians 
abolished  Necessity  and  gave  Freedom  a  new  mean- 
ing."1 

Jansenius  himself  does  not  come  into  our  scheme, 
but  it  is  impossible  not  to  allude  to  his  piety,  his 
learning,  his  extraordinary  erudition.  Possibly  the 
word  which  he  is  said  to  have  uttered,  "  I  would  go  to 
the  end  of  the  world  with  no  book  but  St  Augustine  " 2 
explains  his  limits,  his  failure  to  do  more,  the  melan- 
choly distinction  which  falls  to  his  lot  of  being  the 
posthumous  founder  of  a  school  of  thought  or  sect. 

One  Father,  or  one  book  is  not  and  never  will  be 
the  whole  Catholic  Religion :  St  John  and  St  Paul  are 
needed  to  supplement  each  other,  and  behind  all  is  our 
Lord  Himself. 

Augustinus  was  printed  in  1640.  St  Cyran,  whose 
own  literary  style  has  none  of  the  grace,  distinction, 
and  terseness  which  make  the  best  French  prose  the 
delight  of  all  cultivated  readers,  esteemed  it  very 
highly.  Lancelot  is  fain  to  wish  his  beloved  master  had 
been  able  to  revise  it. 

The  Augustinus  ;  or,  the  Doctrine  of  St  Augustine  on 
the  Health,  Sickness,  and  Medicine  of  the  Soul,  is 
divided  into  three  volumes. 

Vol.  I.  considers  the  doctrines  of  the  Pelagians  and 
of  the  Semi- Pelagians. 

Vol.  II.  treats  of  the  Truths  of  Christianity,  and  of 

1  Bigg,  Christian  Platonists. 

2  M.  de  Saci  alluding  to  this,  said,  "  /  would  go — with  my  Bible." 


100  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE   ST  CYRAN 

Grace,  which  are  to  be  decided  by  Holy  Scripture, 
the  Councils,  and  the  Fathers,  and  especially  by  St 
Augustine,  the  doctor  who  has  made  the  doctrine  of 
Grace  his  own. 

Jansenius  considers  that  these  authorities  must  be 
followed,  and  he  then  dwells  on  the  Fall. 

Vol.  III.  The  redemption  of  man  and  his  restoration 
are  considered,  and  also  his  gratuitous  predestination 
(God's  free  gift). 

Now  those  who  follow  St  Augustine  and  those  who 
take  St  Thomas  Aquinas  as  their  guide,  agree  that 
there  is:  (i)  "efficacious"  or  prevenient  grace,  not 
dependent  on  the  will  of  man,  and  (2)  " sufficient" 
grace,  to  which  man  does  not  always  yield. 

Alas  for  human  foresight.  Who  now  reads  Augus- 
tinus  ?  Yet  St  Cyran  thought  it  would  last  as  long  as 
the  Church  lasted,  little  dreaming  that  a  certain  boy  of 
fifteen,  one  Blaise  Pascal,  was  the  chosen  vessel — the 
immortal  controversialist,  still  read,  still  enjoyed — who 
by  some  scattered  thoughts  and  the  brilliant  Lettres 
Provinciates  should  keep  Port  Royal  in  remembrance. 

About  this  time  St  Cyran's  penitents,  who  were 
known  as  the  "  Solitaires,"  retired  to  Port  Royal  des 
Champs,  the  long-desired  home  of  "  les  notres."  M.  Le 
Maitre  and  his  brother  lived  completely  alone,  but  the 
others  had  their  meals  in  common  with  the  children 
whom  they  were  educating — there  were  altogether 
some  ten  or  twelve  persons,  and,  as  Lancelot  says,  they 
led  a  very  happy  life,  with  the  simple  purpose  of  pleasing 
God  and  serving  Him. 

Cardinal  Richelieu,  however,  by  no  means  wished  to 
leave  them  in  peace,  and  sent  a  certain  official, 
Laubardement,  who  paid  them  two  visits,  and  not 
content  with  questioning  the  Solitaires,  cross-examined 
even  the  children.  M.  Le  Maitre  rather  enjoyed  his 
cross-examination,  in  which  he  played  on  Laubarde- 
ment writh  all  his  legal  skill,  and,  as  the  chronicler 
remarks,  the  examiner  was  a  child  in  Le  Maitre's 
hands.  As  might  be  expected,  nothing  was  discovered, 
although  Laubardement  tried  hard  to  find  some 


THE  SOLITAIRES  AT  FERTE-MILON     101 

grounds  for  saying  that  St  Cyran  discouraged  frequent 
Communion,  for  which  Lancelot,  the  youngest  of  all  the 
Solitaires,  took  him  to  task.  There  was  a  sort  of 
rivalry  at  that  time  in  the  ecclesiastical  world  as  to  who 
could  bring  something  forward  against  St  Cyran's 
teaching.  The  Bishop  of  Langres  wrote  a  Memoir  on 
the  subject.  The  Port  Royalists  were  never  slow  to 
take  up  their  pens  in  one  another's  defence,  and  M.  Le 
Maitre  from  his  hermitage,  and  young  Antoine  Arnauld, 
his  very  youthful  uncle,  youngest  of  all  Mere 
Angelique's  brothers,  rushed  into  the  fray. 

Another  priest,  the  Abbe  des  Prieres,  distinguished 
himself  by  his  animosity.  Lancelot  says  of  him  that 
he  was  henceforth  the  centre  of  all  the  persecution, 
and  in  lamenting  this,  has  a  shrewd  remark — 
"This,"  he  says,  "is  the  worst  feature  of  spiritual  sins. 
People  do  repent  sometimes  of  gross  sensual  sin,  but 
spiritual  sins  are  hidden  in  the  very  depths  of  the 
heart." 

The  Solitaires  were  soon  disturbed.  An  order  came 
for  them  to  leave  Port  Royal ;  they  took  refuge  in 
divers  places.  M.  Le  Maitre  found  it  extremely  difficult 
to  get  anyone  to  take  so  dangerous  a  person  as  the 
ex-avocat  under  his  protection. 

At  last  a  certain  M.  Vitard,1  who  lived  in  a  small 
town,  Ferte-Milon,  some  forty  miles  from  Paris,  took 
them  all  in,  and  Lancelot  charged  himself  with  the 
education  of  M.  Vitard's  boys.  The  little  Community, 
consisting  of  Lancelot,  M.  Le  Maitre  and  M.  de 
Sericourt,  with  M.  Singlin,  who  had  replaced  M.  de  St 
Cyran  as  confessor  to  the  Solitaires,  lived  for  a  year  in 
complete  retreat  and  in  perfect  peace. 

Lancelot  seems  hardly  to  have  exchanged  a  word 
with  either  Le  Maitre  or  De  Sericourt  during  this  time. 
It  is  strange  to  think  of  this  little  Community,  bound 
by  no  religious  vows,  living  with  the  one  purpose  of 
serving  God  and  working  out  their  own  salvation,  in 

1  He  married  the  poet  Racine's  great-aunt.  Madame  Vitard  was  the 
sister  of  the  poet's  grandmother,  Mme.  Racine.  One  of  her  daughters 
entered  Port  Royal,  and  was  abbess  1690-99. 


102  THE  PEKIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

the  midst  of  the  France  of  Louis  XIII. — such  a  France 
as  is  described  to  us  in  many  memoirs  and  in  the  novels 
of  Dumas,  and  in  De  Vigny's  beautiful  story  of  Cinq 
Mars.  Yet  such  people  are  found  in  all  countries  in 
every  age.  We  had  the  Little  Gidding  household  in 
England  about  this  very  time. 

It  is  now  time  to  say  a  few  words  on  De  Saci,  the 
younger  brother  of  Le  Maitre,  and  De  Sericourt.  Born 
in  1613,  from  his  earliest  years  he  was  a  boy  of  great 
promise  and  piety,  with  a  turn  for  rhyming  and  a  taste 
for  literature.  He  wrote  little  vers  cT occasion  when  he 
was  quite  a  small  boy,  and  M.  Fontaine,  the  author  of 
the  delightful  Memoirs  of  Port  Royal  which  bear  his 
name,  gives  us  a  poem  written  by  young  Isaac,  to  thank 
his  mother  for  a  purse  she  had  given  each  of  her  sons. 
"  Pure  style  de  precieuses,"  remarks  Sainte  Beuve  a 
propos  of  this  effusion,  which  naturally  enough  pleased 
and  astonished  poor  Catherine  Le  Maitre.  The 
precocious  boy  translated  at  her  request  a  good  many 
Latin  hymns.  De  Saci  from  his  childhood  was  devoted 
to  the  priesthood,  and  was  very  early  in  life  St  Cyran's 
spiritual  child.  He  was  always  a  pure,  guileless  soul, 
and  never  seems  to  have  wavered  in  the  path  which 
was  so  clearly  marked  out  for  him.  He  was  almost  of 
the  same  age  as  Antoine  Arnauld,  his  young  uncle,  and 
it  seemed  a  natural  proceeding  for  him  to  take  his 
doctor's  degree  at  the  Sorbonne  and  be  ordained  priest. 
From  this  De  Saci  turned  away,  much  to  the  surprise 
of  his  family  ;  even  his  elder  brother, "  le  grand  penitent,'' 
M.  Le  Maitre,  saw  no  objection  to  his  Ordination.  M. 
de  St  Cyran  advised  the  youth  to  write  to  his  brother 
and  explain  his  reasons.  The  real  cause  of  De  Saci's 
hesitation  was  that  he  was  not  sure  of  his  vocation  to 
the  priesthood,  and  if  he  took  his  doctor's  degree  he 
must  be  ordained  priest. 

De  Saci  got  his  way,  but,  as  Fontaine  says,  "  He 
feared  to  be  a  Doctor  on  account  of  the  Priesthood  ;  he 
became  a  Priest  without  becoming  a  Doctor." 

De  Saci  joined  the  Solitaires  and  had  a  bad  illness 
after  the  dispersion  of  1638.  After  his  recovery  he 


M.  DE  SACI  103 

stayed  for  a  while  with  M.  de  Barcos,  studying  and 
preparing1  himself  for  his  future  life-work.  He  was  a 
born  director,  and  his  great  distinction,  his  '  note,'  so 
to  speak,  was  his  love  for  the  Bible ;  his  profound 
conviction  that  in  reading  and  in  meditation  on  Holy 
Scripture  are  to  be  found  illumination  and  healing,  as 
the  author  of  the  Imitation  had  said  long  before  : 

"  For  I  find  two  things  very  particularly  necessary 
for  me  in  this  life — food  and  light ;  without  these  two  I 
could  not  live  well,  for  the  Word  of  God  is  the  Jight  of 
my  soul,  and  Thy  Sacrament  the  Bread  of  Life."1 

His  great  work  was  the  translation  of  the  Bible ; 
his  whole  life  was  one  steady,  unbroken  devotion  to 
God. 

As  Sainte  Beuve  says,  there  is  but  one  fault  ever  to 
be  discovered  in  De  Saci,  and  that  was  really  a  fault 
of  taste.  He  perpetrated  a  reply  in  verse  to  a  stupid 
and  unworthy  Almanack,  published  by  the  Jesuits.  De 
Saci  would  have  done  better  had  he  not  descended  to 
the  level  of  this  almanack ;  but  his  verses,  Enluminures, 
are  only  stupid  and  clumsy,  according  to  our  taste  at 
least. 

For  the  rest  De  Saci  gave  himself  entirely  to  the 
things  of  God.  A  little  cold,  a  little  severe  at  first 
sight,  yet  in  reality  neither  one  nor  the  other,  he  and 
M.  Singlin  are  the  true  and  only  real  successors  of 
St  Cyran. 

"  Port  Royal — le  vrai  Port  Royal  complet  n'a  en  eu 
tout  et  pour  tout  que  trois  directeurs  en  chef,  M.  de 
Saint  Cyran,  M.  Singlin,  et  M.  de  Saci,"  writes  Sainte 
Beuve. 

Returning  to  our  dispersed  Solitaires  at  Ferte-Milon  ; 
Lancelot  tells  us  that  Fert^-Milon  not  being  a  particu- 
larly healthy  place,  he  fell  ill,  and  that  in  his  illness 
M.  Le  Maltre  was  inexpressibly  good  to  him,  not  only 
doing  everything  he  could  for  Claude  himself,  but  also 
doing  his  work  and  looking  after  his  pupil. 

1  Imitation  of  Christ,  Dr  Bigg's  translation,  p.  170. 


104  THE  PEEIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYEAN 

Pere  Joseph  died  at  the  end  of  1638,  and  about  a 
year  afterwards  M.  Le  Maitre  and  M.  de  Sericourt  went 
quietly  back  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  where  their 
late  host,  M.  Vitard,  joined  them.  M.  Vitard  seems 
to  have  charged  himself  with  the  mundane  calls  of  the 
household.  M.  Le  Maitre  and  his  brother  felt  it  their 
duty  to  occupy  themselves  with  a  good  deal  of  manual 
labour,  and  to  take  great  care  of  the  domains  of  Port 
Royal. 

Lancelot  was  not  with  them  at  first  at  Port  Royal 
des  Champs.  He  went  with  M.  de  Barcos  (St  Cyran's 
nephew)  to  the  Abbey  of  St  Cyran  for  a  year,  and  then 
returned  to  Paris,  where  the  education  of  several  boys 
was  entrusted  to  him — a  work  very  dear  to  St  Cyran. 
He  also  took  charge  of  the  sacristy  of  Port  Royal,  and 
in  Paris  he  spent  about  six  years. 

Port  Royal  de  Paris  was  going  on  quietly  and 
happily,  but  St  Cyran's  imprisonment  was  of  course  a 
great  trouble  and  also  a  cause  of  some  apprehension. 
Mere  Angelique  writes : 

"26th  June  1638. 

'  Things  are  just  in  the  same  state,  only  God  can  alter 
this.  We  have  something  to  do  with  it,  not  only  on 
account  of  the  deep  sense  we  have  of  what  we  owe  to 
M.  de  St  Cyran,  but  because  we  are  ourselves  looked 
on  in  such  a  way  that  if  we  were  not  what  we  are  [i.e. 
so  unworthy]  we  should  go  with  him  into  prison.  I 
do  not  know  yet  that  nothing  will  happen." 

A  few  days  later  she  writes  : 

:<  Things  are  going  from  bad  to  worse,  and  we  cannot 
say  anything  else,  or  what  will  be  the  end  of  it  all. 
Apparently  there  is  everything  to  fear,  and  you  can  do 
me  no  greater  kindness  than  to  pray  to  God  that  He 
will  hear  the  prayers  of  the  Blessed  Mother  and  send 
His  Holy  Spirit  on  them  to  lead  them  in  Truth  and 
sustain  them  by  Grace." 

Mere  Angelique  wrote  in  the  same  strain  to  the 
Mere  de  Chantal,  and  warns  her  not  to  speak  much 
nor  to  many  people,  of  the  correspondence  between 
them, 


ST  CYKAN'S  LIFE  IN  PEISON         105 

"For,  my  Mother,  you  cannot  really  measure 
how  I  am  regarded  even  in  houses  belonging  to  your 
Order." 

As  yet,  however,  no  persecution  fell  on  Port  Royal. 
St  Cyran  from  his  prison  continued  to  direct  various 
people,  notably  the  Princess  de  Guemenee,  Anne  de 
Rohan,  widow  of  Louis  de  Rohan,  Prince  de  Guemenee. 
M.  dAndilly,  who  loved  souls,  and  especially  souls 
which  were  contained  in  beautiful  bodies,  had  brought 
her  into  touch  with  M.  de  St  Cyran. 

M.  Guillebert,  a  priest  and  a  Professor  in  the 
Sorbonne,  and  M.  de  Reboures,  a  priest  who  was  to 
become  one  of  the  confessors  of  Port  Royal,  came 
under  St  Cyran's  direction. 

M.  de  St  Cyran  was  kept  in  a  tolerably  rigorous 
confinement.  He  was  ill  several  times,  and  the  wife  of 
one  of  the  officers  of  the  prison  did  her  best,  for  some 
reason  or  another,  to  make  him  as  uncomfortable  as 
possible.  In  return,  St  Cyran  induced  the  nuns  of  Port 
Royal  to  receive  her  sister-in-law  among  them,  and  also 
taught  for  a  while  her  little  boys. 

A  year  passed  away  before  any  examination  of  the 
prisoner  took  place.  M.  de  St  Cyran  refused  in  calm 
and  dignified  terms  to  be  questioned  by  Laubardement, 
who  had  examined  the  "  Solitaires,"  as  he  was  in  no 
wise  an  ecclesiastic.  Richelieu  at  last  sent  his  own  con- 
fessor, one  Jacques  Lescot,  a  Professor  of  the  Sorbonne, 
who  had  been  some  years  earlier  acquainted  with 
Antoine  Arnauld.  Lancelot  observes  that  Lescot  had 
not  taught  his  penitent  to  forgive,  and  had  learned  from 
that  penitent  to  revenge!  Lancelot  tells  us  in  his 
Memoir  that  St  Cyran's  great  wish  was  to  follow  our 
Blessed  Lord's  Example,  and  especially  the  Example  of 
His  Humility. 

Lescot  was  not,  as  one  might  expect,  a  priest  who 
could  in  the  least  appreciate  this  temper  of  mind.  He 
was  not  particularly  clever,  and  his  reading  had  been 
limited  to  scholastic  learning ;  of  the  Fathers  he  was 
practically  ignorant. 


106  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

Nothing  came  of  this  examination.  Lescot  hinted 
to  St  Cyran  that  his  liberation  from  prison  really  de- 
pended on  his  opinions  on  contrition.  M.  de  St  Cyran 
asked  for  permission  to  go  home  for  a  few  months  and 
write  a  book  on  the  subject,  but,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
Richelieu  was  not  favourable  to  this  project. 

"  One  must  not  be  too  much  troubled,"  said  St  Cyran, 
"let  God  act.  He  is  too  merciful  to  us ;  if  He  lets  us 
work  our  work  of  penitence  in  prison,  all  human  means 
for  delivering  me  are  futile — He  only,  as  I  have  said,  can 
deliver  me  from  my  judge,  whether  it  be  to  go  to  Paris 
or — to  Paradise." 

Lescot  paid  St  Cyran  another  visit  a  year  later,  and 
there  were  several  attempts  to  make  him  write  or  say 
something  which  might  pass  for  a  recantation.  St 
Cyran  did  not  falter  or  seem  to  falter  for  a  moment. 
M.  d'Andilly,  M.  de  Liancourt,  and  especially  M.  de 
Chavigny,  all  besought  him  to  write  a  letter.  This  last 
was  a  nephew  of  that  Bishop  of  Aire,  who,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  a  dear  friend  of  St  Cyran.  Chavigny  did  all 
he  could  for  St  Cyran.  He  was  the  governor  of  Vin- 
cennes  and  a  favourite  of  Richelieu.  It  was  settled  that 
St  Cyran  should  write  a  letter  to  M.  de  Chavigny  on 
the  subject  of  contrition,  and  that  Chavigny  should 
show  this  letter  to  the  Cardinal.  To  this,  after  some 
hesitation,  St  Cyran  assented. 

He  set  forth  his  belief  that  two  opinions  were  allow- 
able :  one,  that  contrition  was  absolutely  necessary,  the 
other,  that  attrition  was  enough. 

This  letter  is  not  clear,  but  naturally  enough,  St 
Cyran  was  struggling  to  express  himself  moderately  ;  he 
quickly  repented  of  this  small  attempt,  and  writes  in  a 
very  few  days  to  M.  dAndilly  that  he  is  vexed  for  not 
having  spoken  more  strongly. 

As  he  predicted,  the  letter  had  no  effect  on  Richelieu, 
and  he  paid  no  attention  to  the  words  of  so  great  a 
person  as  M.  le  Prince  de  Conde",  who  spoke  to  him  of 
St  Cyran. 

"He  is  a  dangerous  person,"  said  the  Cardinal, 


RICHELIEU'S  VIEWS  107 

"more  dangerous  than  six  armies.  Do  you  see  my 
Catechism,  which  is  in  the  twenty-second  edition?  / 
say  in  it  that  attrition  is  enough,  and  he  ventures  to 
say  that  contrition  is  necessary.  Added  to  which,  he 
was  opposed  to  me  in  that  affair  of  Monsieur's  marriage, 
when  every  other  person  in  France  was  on  my  side." 

This  significant  little  conversation  was  repeated  by 
Louis  de  Bourbon,  afterwards  the  great  Conde  (the 
brother  of  Madame  de  Longueville),  to  M.  d'Andilly, 
who  duly  carried  it  to  M.  de  St  Cyran  on  one  of  his 
few  visits.  For  St  Cyran  saw  few  friends,  he  resigned 
himself  to  his  prison,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  his  life  was 
full  of  fruits. 

He  was  kind  to  his  fellow-prisoners ;  Lancelot  tells 
us  of  various  little  instances  of  remarkably  thoughtful 
kindnesses.  A  certain  Baronne  de  Beau-Soleil  (whom 
Lancelot  identifies  with  a  person  who  had  been  noted 
as  one  who  found  water  with  divining-rods)  was  shut  up 
at  Vincennes,  and  St  Cyran  saw  that  she  and  her 
daughter  (who  was  with  her)  were  badly  provided  with 
clothes.  He  wrote  at  once  to  Madame  Le  Maltre  and 
commissioned  her  to  get  what  was  wanted  and  to  send 
such  things  as  were  suitable  for  gentlewomen,  even 
remembering  that  ladies  frequently  wore  black  lace. 
This  is  only  a  specimen.  He  really  was  a  father  to 
all  the  poor  people  at  Vincennes,  and  was  particularly 
kind  to  the  under-governor  of  Vincennes  and  his  wife, 
who  had  been  as  malicious  and  spiteful  as  she  well  could 
be.  St  Cyran  interceded  on  her  husband's  behalf  with 
M.  de  Chavigny. 

The  days  were  passed  in  strict  devotion,  in  writing, 
in  acts  of  kindness.  It  is  pleasant  to  notice  how  fond 
St  Cyran  was  of  children. 

To  this  period  belong  these  letters  of  St  Cyran. 

St  Cyran  to  M.  Guillebert. 

Speaking  of  the  Priesthood,  he  writes  : 
"  We  must  surrender  ourselves  to  God  once  and  for 
all,  and  enter  upon  that  narrow  way,  out  of  which  there 


108  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

is  no  salvation,  and  then  let  ourselves  be  drawn  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  and  by  the  rules  of  His  truth." 

Speaking  of  scholastic  theology,  he  says  : — 

"For  although  it  may  be  true  that  it  [scholastic 
theology]  has  originated  in  part  from  the  necessity  in 
which  the  Church  found  herself  obliged  to  reduce  her 
teaching  into  formulae  in  order  to  destroy  the  subtilty 
of  heretics,  yet  it  has  contributed  a  good  deal  to  the 
pride  of  intellect  in  learned  Catholics." 

St  Cyran's  views  of  the  awful  character  of  the 
priest's  Office  were  very  deep  and  very  austere.  He 
says  many  striking  words  on  the  need  of  vocation,  of 
the  dreadful  nature  of  the  sins  which  lead  priests 
astray ;  he  even  says  : — 

"  Now,  if  the  words  of  the  Gospel  are  considered,  it 
will  be  easy  to  believe  that  the  sins  of  priests  are  of  the 
same  nature  as  those  of  fallen  angels,  and  consequently 
the  result  in  most  evil  priests  is  to  bring  their  souls  into 
an  inconvertible  state." 

He  goes  on  then  to  speak  of  post- Baptismal  sin 
(alas,  too  lightly  regarded  by  us  all),  and  says  : — 

"  The  whole  of  the  faithful  enter,  through  Baptism, 
into  the  participation  of  the  Priesthood  of  Jesus  Christ. 
That  is  why  St  Peter  calls  the  whole  of  the  faithful  the 
Royal  Priesthood,  the  holy  People,  and  St  John  says  all 
Christians  are  Priests.  In  consequence  of  this,  when 
Christians  fall  into  mortal  sin,  they  make  themselves 
guilty  of  a  horrible  profanation  of  the  Priesthood  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  their  own  persons.  And  so,  in  greater 
degree,  the  crimes  of  Priests  are  enormously  heavy." 

St  Cyran  dwells  much  on  the  strictness  of  the  Gospel. 
He  goes  on  to  dwell  on  the  sign  of  a  true  vocation, 
which  seems  to  him  to  be  chiefly  innocence  or 
penitence : — 

"  I  do  not  know  if  you  will  forgive  me  for  a  thought 
which  has  come  into  my  mind,  and  if  you  will  be  as 
simple  in  listening  to  it  as  I  aspire  to  be  in  telling  it.  It 


LETTERS  OF  ST  CYRAN  109 

seems  to  me  that  Jesus  Christ  during-  the  three  years  of 
His  Ministry  called  no  one  to  the  Apostolate  and  to  the 
Ministry  who  was  learned  in  the  Law ;  even  Nathaniel 
and  Nicodemus  were  excluded.  He  called  only  fishers 
and  simple  and  ignorant  men.  So  also  in  these  latter 
days,  which  the  Apostles  would  call  with  more  reason  than 
then  '  the  last  time, '  since  Theology  has  become  so  detailed 
and  so  far  removed  from  the  simplicity  and  obedience  to 
God's  Spirit  which  is  needful  to  faith  ...  it  seems  to 
me,  I  repeat,  that  the  greater  number  of  those  who  are 
called  to  the  Priesthood  might  be  simple  and  ignorant, 
to  whom  God  gives  His  light  and  reveals  His  mysteries, 
as  the  Gospel  for  St  Matthias  Day  says." 

Of  course  this  is  only  one  aspect,  and  the  Church  of 
God  is  never  wholly  effectual  when  her  priests  are 
wholly  unlearned.  The  sad  fact  is  that  learning  and 
poverty  are  so  often  incompatible.  If  St  Cyran 
had  lived  now,  he  would  probably  have  denounced 
the  idea  prevalent  among  us,  that  the  Ministry  can 
only  be  exercised  by  people  belonging  to  the  well- 
to-do  classes. 

St  Cyran  goes  on  in  another  letter  to  lament  the 
ignorance  which  prevailed  concerning  Holy  Orders, 
Penance,  the  Eucharist. 

In  another  letter  he  speaks  of  the  joy  he  felt  when 
he  read  these  words  which  have  brought  peace  to  many 
souls:  "  Si  quis  voluerit  voluntatem  ejus  facere,  cog- 
noscet  de  doctrina,"  etc.  "It  is  seen  here  so  clearly 
that  the  way  to  know  the  truth  of  God  is  to  do  His  will. 
And  what  more  direct  way  of  doing  God's  will  is 
there  than  to  renounce  one's  possessions,  worldly  and 
spiritual  ?  "  Two  qualities  St  Cyran  desired  to  see  in  a 
priest  who  was  also  a  penitent : — 

"The  one  is  steadfastness,  which  is  more  than  good 
sense,  and  which  can  aid  him  much  with  the  help  of 
Grace  to  fight  against  the  remains  of  sins.  The  other 
is  an  entire  exemption  from  covetousness,  as  much  in 
respect  of  happiness  as  in  respect  of  men  and  of  praise 
.  .  .  every  day  and  hour  of  the  life  of  such  a  penitent 
ought  to  be  accompanied  by  offerings,  sacrifices,  and 
thanksgiving,  presented  to  God  for  such  a  blessed 


110  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

return,  which  is  the  effect  of  a  grace  much  more  rare  in 
this  age  than  is  suspected. 

"  If  ever  the  command  that  Jesus  Christ  made  to 
His  Disciples  to  pray  the  Lord^of  the  harvest  to  send 
labourers  into  His  harvest,  that  is  to  say,  Priests  with  a 
true  and  heavenly  vocation  given  by  God,  not  merely 
an  exterior  call ;  if  ever  this  should  be  obeyed,  it  is  now, 
when  souls  are  languishing  and  dying  of  hunger  for  lack 
of  Bread,  when  there  are  no  true  Pastors  who  are  able 
to  break  and  distribute  it  to  them." 

M.  Guillebert  was  much  exercised  as  to  his  future 
life.  St  Cyran  says  : — 

"  It  is  a^matter  of  the  greatest  importance  that  before 
the  beginning  anything  great  or  small,  we  should  pray 
to  God  with  great  earnestness.  God  has  only  troubled 
the  surface  of  your  well,  I  mean  your  heart,  in  order  to 
heal  you  by  the  Angel  of  Counsel  from  all  natural 
infirmities,  which  are  common  to  all ;  He  has  drawn  you 
by  love  to  the  one  truth,  by  which,  as  the  Gospel  tells 
us,  God  heals  and  frees  the  soul  from  all  remaining 
faults  and  from  the  slavery  of  sin." 

Letter  after  letter  follows ;  always  the  same  stern 
austerity,  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  yet  with  indications  of 
not  exactly  tenderness,  perhaps,  but  of  burning  love, 
restrained,  kept  under,  but  always  at  white  heat.  He 
points  out  in  one  letter,  how  the  degradation  in  Church 
life  resembled  the  Jewish  apostasy.  He  longs,  he  says, 
to  weep  over  men  who  are  really  losing  their  souls  in 
full  security.  "  What  is,  then,  the  way  by  which  we  can 
avoid  illusions,  and  tread  in  the  path  of  God,  the  narrow 
way  of  the  Gospel,  in  which  Jesus  Christ  precedes  us  ? 
It  is  this — follow  the  Truth  of  the  Gospel,  and  follow 
after  it  in  the  sense  that  all  the  great  saints,  the  great 
pastors  of  the  Church,  have  taught." 

The  following  extracts  will  give  some  idea  of  his 
teaching.  The  stern  side  of  our  Lord's  teaching  is 
brought  before  the  priest  as  he  says  : — 

"  When  I  consider  the  pastoral  charge  from  this 
point  of  view,  which  is  the  point  of  view  of  the  Gospel, 
I  can  only  say  to  you  that  you  will  never  attain  that 


ON  HOLY  ORDERS  111 

Grace,  which  you  need  to  strengthen  and  nourish  you 
in  the  truths  which  God  has  ^  taught  Christians  and 
stored  up  in  the  Gospel  and  in  the  traditions  of  the 
Church,  if  you  do  not  do  what  Jesus  Christ  and  His 
Apostles  have  done,  that  is,  surrender  all  things,  sur- 
render yourself. 

"This  word  would  be  terrifying  to  us  if  Jesus  Christ 
had  not  expressly  laid  all  Christians  under  the  obligation 
to  obey  this  law;  so  it  is  not  a  counsel,  but  a  strict 
command. 

"We  have  only  to  read  and  understand  St  Luke 
xiv.,  where  the  Son  of  God  says  so  solemnly  that  no 
one  ought  to  undertake  to  unite  himself  to  Christ's 
Church  if  he  does  not  leave  all  without  exception.  .  .  . 
There  is  nothing  so  indispensable  for  a  Pastor  as  this, 
the  surrendering  of  all ;  and  although  I  agree  that  all 
are  not  called  to  renounce  the  actual  possession  of 
worldly  goods  as  are  the  *  religious'  who  consecrate 
themselves  to  God,  it  does  seem  to  me  that  at  this 
epoch,  when  the  Clergy  have  become  so  secular,  and  so 
fond  of  money,  that  they  are  a  public  scandal  to  every- 
one, a  Pastor  should  be  specially  marked  out  by  the 
virtue  of  detachment  from  temporal  things." 

St  Cyran  in  another  letter  points  out  how  the  grace 
given  in  ordination  may  lead  a  Priest  and  Pastor  to  a 
veritable  martyrdom.  He  goes  on  to  say  : — 

"It  is  really  simply  nothing,  or  nearly  nothing,  to 
kindle  love  in  the  soul  of  a  sinner  if  no  care  is  taken  to 
keep  it  alive  and  to  supply  it  as  it  were  with  fresh  fuel 
continually  and  unfailingly." 

How  many  parochial  Missions  have  seemed  to  bring 
little  result  for  lack  of  attention  to  this  apparently 
obvious  truth  ! 

Finally,  St  Cyran  advises  M.  Guillebert  to  go  forward 
in  the  discharge  of  his  sacred  office.  He  uses  these 
memorable  words : — 

11  You  will  have  no  difficulty  in  understanding  this 
Way  [the  Way  of  God]  and  in  distinguishing  it  from  all 
others  which  feign  to  be  the  Way.  They  come  in  the 
beginning  always  from  him  who  can  change  himself  into 
an  angel  of  light — although  he  hides  the  deceitfulness 
of  his  light,  as  well  as  the  reality  of  his  darkness. 


112  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYEAN 

"  For  although  the  Heavenly  Way  may  be  narrow, 
it  grows  wider  in  proportion  as  one  treads  it,  and 
although  the  truth  which  grace  imparts  may  not  be 
easy  to  see,  it  becomes  luminous  in  proportion  as  it  is 
perceived,  and  in  proportion  as  love  is  practised.  .  .  . 

11  God  alone  will  be  sufficient  to  guide  you  in  all 
circumstances,  and  to  light  you  in  all  difficulties  which 
you  encounter  in  your  office." 

What  follows  shows  how  completely  a  Catholic  who 
believes  in  the  "Ministry  of  Reconciliation"  can  yet 
assert  the  necessity  of  dependence  on  God  alone  ulti- 
mately and  for  every  (so  to  speak)  final  need  of  the 
soul : — 

"We  must  struggle  after  this  Christian  freedom, 
which  liberates  us  from  all  bondage,  even  bondage  to 
men  who  serve  God,  for  they  often  stay  us  and  deceive 
us  if  they  are  not  like-minded  with  us  and  are  not  labour- 
ing for  the  same  end,  by  the  same  means." 

These  few  extracts  give  some  idea  of  the  absolute 
self-surrender  which  St  Cyran  taught.  The  truths  he 
preaches  may  seem  obvious  enough,  but  experience 
teaches  that  it  is  just  the  simple,  elementary,  obvious 
truths  of  duty  and  of  faith  which  are  often,  nay  generally, 
the  easiest  to  overlook. 

Writing  to  M.  de  Rebours,  who  became  one  of  the 
Port  Royal  confessors,  M.  de  St  Cyran  advises  him  not 
to  read  more  than  one  chapter  of  Arnauld's  book l  daily, 
and  to  read  more  Holy  Scripture.  "There  is  nothing 
at  all  like  it :  everything  else  is  nothing  in  comparison." 

There  is  a  tender  little  touch  in  one  of  this  set  of 
letters.  St  Cyran  is  half  apologising  for  having  sent 
some  children  to  Port  Royal,  and  writes  : — 

"  But  the  truth  is  that  I  did  not  foresee  it  would  be 
for  such  a  long  time,  and  my  original  plan  was  to  relieve 
them  [the  '  Solitaires ']  as  soon  as  I  was  set  at  liberty. 

"For  it  seems  to  me  I  can  bear  the  naughtiness  of 
children  fairly  well,  and  I  think  I  might  do  a  good  deal 
for  them,  even  if  I  did  not  get  them  on  much  in  Latin 
until  they  were  twelve  or  so,  provided  I  could  get  them 

1  De  la  Frdquente  Communion. 


ST  CYEAN'S  LETTERS  113 

in  their  early  childhood  into  the  neighbourhood  of  a 
house  or  a  monastery  in  the  country,  allowing-  them  the 
games  of  their  age,  and  only  letting-  them  see  the  example 
of  a  good  life  in  those  who  would  live  with  me." 

Sometimes  M.  de  Rebours  seems  to  have  been  dis- 
tressed by  St  Cyran's  letters,  and  St  Cyran  tried  to 
comfort  him.  He  writes  : — 

"There  are  breathings  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Who  is 
the  Wind  of  Heaven,  which  are  not  felt,  which  make  us 
act ;  this  is  always  true  of  souls  separated  from  the 
world  and  consecrated  to  God,  of  whom  I  have  spoken 
below." 

St  Cyran  had  a  great  dislike  of  over-much  religious 
talk.  He  says  in  another  letter  : — 

"  Words  of  piety,  whatever  they  may  be,  are  in  the 
Church  as  among  the  leaves  t  not  among  the  fruits. 
They  are  called  cymbalum  tinniens  (tinkling  cymbal)." 

Continually  he  exhorts  his  sons  in  the  faith  to 
perseverance : — 

"There  is  nothing  so  easy  as  speaking  a  worldly 
language  and  what  comes  naturally  to  us.  If  after  a 
total  surrender  we  do  not  perpetually  watch  and  pray 
God  to  be  also  watchful  over  us,  we  shall  fall  back  on 
ourselves." 

He  shared  to  the  full  the  fear  of  unworthy  Com- 
munions which  Antoine  Arnauld  expressed  in  La 
Frgquente  Communion.  "The  Holy  Communion  only 
hurts  souls  which  are  not  in  the  least  converted  to 
God."  He  is  extremely  anxious  that  no  one  should 
come  to  it  carelessly,  unprepared.  Speaking  of  the 
religious  education  of  girls,  he  writes  : — 

"If  they  are  innocent  and  good,  but  living  in 
indifference,  I  should  tell  them  gently  about  the  love  of 
God  and  of  watchfulness  _  over  themselves  and  their 
natural  inclinations :  and  if  they  really  showed  that 
they  were  trying  in  some  degree  although  not  in  every- 
thing, I  should  receive  them  from  time  to  time  to 

H 


114  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

Communion.  When  they  do  not  wish  to  fall  into  venial 
sin,  and  only  yield  to  it  through  weakness  and  are  sorry 
for  it,  all  that  is  very  pardonable,"  he  says  with  a  tender- 
ness which,  though  seldom  expressed,  was  very  real. 

St  Cyran  writes  of  M.  d'Andilly  from  his  prison  : — 

11  It  is  really  true  that  there  are  very  few  people  who 
are  like  him  either  in  intelligence  or  goodness." 

Speaking  of  his  imprisonment,  he  says,  in  a  letter  to 
M.  Arnauld  : — 

"  I  am  in  prison  for  upholding  penitence." 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  Priestly  Life,  I 
will  quote  a  few  of  the  "  Pensees  sur  la  Sacerdoce," 
from  Lettres  de  M.  de  St  Cyran. 

"God  has  pointed  out  nothing  more  clearly  in  the 
books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  than  the 
indispensable  necessity  of  Divine  election  and  vocation 
for  the  sacred  Ministry,  alike  for  the  Synagogue  and 
the  Church. 

"We  may  be  the  most  upright  of  men,  but  we 
cannot  be  Priests  except  by  a  vocation  from  God,  sent 
it  may  be  as  a  reward  for  a  holy  life." 

(Probably  this  sentence  will  jar  on  most  of  us,  but 
one  is  sure  from  the  context  that  St  Cyran  meant  that 
in  proportion  as  men  correspond  to  grace,  God  calls 
them  to  greater  exertion,  to  nobler  vocations.) 

"A  very  special  vocation  is  needful  for  those  who 
are  called  to  endure  martyrdom.  As  St  Cyprian  says, 
certainly  it  is  equally  needful  for  the  Priesthood,  since 
one  of  the  essential  conditions  for  a  Pastor  and  a  Priest 
is  to  be  always  ready  to  suffer  death  for  the  least  of  his 
flock,  whether  it  be  in  times  of  peace  or  of  war. 

"  If  a  Bishop  and  a  Priest  really  discharge  their 
offices,  how  much  suffering  they  must  bear  in  this 
world!  If  they  do  not,  what  suffering  will  be  theirs 
in  the  next! 

1  If  it  is  difficult  to  restore  a  Christian  who  has 
fallen  away  from  Baptismal  grace,  it  is  incomparably 
more  difficult  to  restore  a  Priest  who  has  fallen  from 
his  Priesthood. " 


LETTEES  TO  A  CHILD  115 

There  is  much  in  St  Cyran's  notes  on  the  Priesthood 
which  jars  on  one — a  rigour,  an  insistence  on  the  terrors 
of  the  Lord.  But  it  is  right  to  remember  the  low  estate 
of  religion  up  to  this  time  of  revival. 

Not  he  only,  but  many  another  had  tried  to  revive 
the  true  Priestly  spirit,  the  real  sense  of  vocation,  and 
if  St  Cyran  seems  unduly  harsh,  one  must  remember 
that  it  was  not  without  cause.1 

One  saying  of  St  Cyran  recalls  Mere  Angelique's 
first  conversion  : — 

"  There  are  some  elect  souls,  whom  God  reserves, 
who  are  converted  by  the  preaching  of  bad  Clergy 
without  real  vocation.  God  makes  use  of  everything 
for  His  elect,  even  of  the  greatest  sinners  just  as  much 
as  of  other  people.  Even  their  sins  are  sometimes  the 
means  of  converting  souls." 

There  are  some  letters  of  M.  de  St  Cyran  to  his 
little  niece  and  godchild,  who  was  being  brought  up  at 
Port  Royal,  which  show  his  tender  side.  They  are 
written  from  his  prison. 

"  MY  VERY  DEAR  NIECE  AND  GOD-DAUGHTER, 

"  Ever  since  I  have  been  put  by  the  King 
in  a  fine  Castle,  I  have  always  prayed  for  him,  and  also 
for  you,  that  God  would  give  you  grace  to  be  wholly 
His  and  to  serve  Him  from  your  childhood. 

'  The  greatest  joy  I  have  felt  for  two  years  is  to  have 
heard  that  you  are  in  the  holy  house  which  I  so  much 
love  [Port  Royal],  and  that  the  Reverend  Mother  has 
written  to  me  about  you — that  you  are  resolved  to  be 
Jesus  Christ's  little  servant,  and  to  love  no  one  but  Him 
on  earth." 

He  then  goes  on  to  give  her  various  bits  of  good 
advice : — 

"  Never  ^to  excuse  oneself,  never  to  accuse  anyone, 
never  to  pity  oneself  or  compare  oneself  with  other 

1  La  vocation  chretienne  etait  rare  dans  le  haut  Clerge.  Pour  les  fils 
de  grandes  families  Dieu  fut  un  pis  aller  ;  on  servait  Dieu  quand  on  ne 
pouvait,  soit  a  cause  du  rang  de  naissance,  soit  a  cause  d'une  infirmite, 
servir  le  Roi." — Lavisse,  Histoire  de  France. 


116  THE  PEEIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYEAN 

people,  never  to  put  oneself  first,  to  bear  patiently  and 
gently  with  those  who  dp  all  these  things  ;  this,  my  dear 
little  Niece  and  Godchild,  is  the  short  cut  to  be  good 
and  virtuous,  and  well-pleasing  to  our  Lord,  to  whom 
I  commend  you  every  day. 

"  I  am  expecting  the  little  St  John,  my  patron  Saint, 
which  you  wish  to  send  me.  I  will  put  him  with  the 
image  of  Jesus  Christ,  with  the  Crown  of  Thorns  and 
other  pretty  images  of  Saints,  which  are  all  for  you  and 
which  I  will  myself  bring  to  Port  Royal  when  I  get  out 
of  this  Castle.  Love  me  as  I  love  you,  for  the  love  of 
Jesus  Christ,  who  died  for  us." 

St  Cyran  shared  the  usual  belief  of  his  age  and 
of  his  Communion,  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  save 
one's  soul  in  the  world,  and  tells  his  little  niece  as  much. 
But  he  was  very  tender  to  her,  and  by  no  means  inclined 
to  be  over  severe  in  speaking  of  childish  faults.  He 
tells  her  whenever  she  committed  some  small  sin  to 
say  simply,  "  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive 
them  that  trespass  against  us." 

He  sends  many  messages  to  the  various  children, 
one  of  them  to  a  daughter  of  M.  d'Andilly  : — 

"  I  should  have  liked  so  much  to  keep  your  cat ; 
he  was  so  handsome ;  but  my  room  is  so  small,  that 
there  is  not  space  for  us  two.  Keep  him  for  me  until 
I  ask  you  for  him." 

It  is  rather  melancholy  to  read  the  later  letters,  in 
which  St  Cyran  speaks  to  the  child  of  the  duty  of  resist- 
ing her  parents.  Probably  it  was  true  enough  that  they 
would  not  have  brought  her  up  exactly  as  he  desired, 
but  it  is  the  great  failure  of  his  teaching — the  lack  of  all 
sympathy  with  the  common  duties,  common  griefs, 
common  joys  of  life. 

Each  age  of  the  Church  has  its  own  dangers,  its 
own  ideals,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  there  has  been  a 
reaction  against  the  notion  of  the  life  of  "  Religion" — 
to  use  the  word  in  its  technical  sense — when  life  in  the 
world  was  regarded  as  almost  incompatible  with  life  in 
the  Church.  It  is  one  of  the  great  problems  of  our  own 
day,  one  of  the  calls  to  our  Ecclesia  Anglicana,  to 


LETTERS  TO  VARIOUS  PEOPLE       117 

recognise  the  many  vocations  to  which  her  children  may 
be  called. 

St  Cyran's  little  niece  died  in  1641,  and  he  poured 
out  his  heart  in  a  letter  to  Mere  Angelique.  Evidently 
he  had  cared  very  much  for  the  little  girl  whom  he  had 
so  seldom  seen,  the  child  of  a  brother  much  younger 
than  himself,  to  whom  he  had  given  up  an  estate  and 
with  whom,  alas,  he  had  had  a  lawsuit,  a  fact  which  had 
greatly  distressed  the  child.  Her  withdrawal  from  Port 
Royal  did  not,  probably,  imply  a  return  to  her  home,  but 
the  entrance  into  some  other  religious  house,  the  condi- 
tions of  which  St  Cyran  deemed  unfavourable  to  his 
godchild's  spiritual  life. 

He  wrote  afterwards  to  a  lady  of  high  degree, 
probably  the  Princess  de  Guemene"e  :— 

"Only  I  can  know  the  mercy  God  has  granted  me  in 
calling  my  little  niece  to  Himself;  as  St  John  says, 
there  are  gifts  of  God  known  only  to  him  who  receives 
them.  .  .  .  It  is  true  that,  as  far  as  God  made  me  able 
to  love,  I  loved  the  little  one,  for  several  reasons,  and 
because  of  the  tenderness  God  had  given  us  both  for 
each  other." 

A  few  more  extracts,  from  his  letters,  are  here  given. 

To  a  Nun  who  had  become  blind. 

( 'When  extraordinary  ills  overtake  people  such  as 
you  are,  one  must  believe  they  are  occasions  of  wealth. 
For  faith  always  is  what  it  does  not  seem  to  be  in  the 
faithful.  There  is  no  greater  affliction  than  blindness, 
according  to  the  utterances,  passions,  and  reason  of 
mankind.  And  there  is  nothing  so  sanctifying,  if  we 
raise  ourselves  to  God  and  to  His  eternal  plans.  .  .  . 

"  Every  temporal  possession  seems  to  be  included  in 
sunlight,  for  without  it  one  enjoys  nothing.  And,  on  the 
contrary,  all  celestial  possessions  of  grace  are  enclosed  in 
this  darkness,  for  a  true  Christian,  who  bears  it  with 
patience,  and  thence  makes  his  soul  purer  and  more  full 
of  light. 

'  The  highest  perfection  lies  in  recognising  every 
event,  good  or  bad,  as  effects  of  the  will  of  God.  He 
is  so  kind,  and  He  accommodates  Himself  so  much  to 


118  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE   ST  CYEAN 

our  weakness,  that  He  only  sends  us  trials  one  after  the 
other  so  as  to  help  us  to  bear  great  ones  by  the  smaller 


ones." 


Writing  to  a  friend  who  had  lost  his  only  daughter, 
St  Cyran  says  : — 

"  As  the  advice  of  one  in  sorrow  is  often  listened  to 
by  a  comrade  in  affliction,  I  counsel  you  to  do  with 
your  trial  (which  is  more  unique  than  mine)  what  God 
has  given  me  grace  to  do  with  mine,1  which  is  to  look 
on  it  as  a  part  of  the  Passion  of  the  Son  of  God.  He 
does  not  say  by  His  Prophets  that  He  has  been  alone 
in  His  Passion,  but  that  His  Passion  has  been  by  itself. 
God  sometimes  sends  us  unique  sorrows. 

"  Every  sorrow  sent  to  us  in  this  world  resembles, 
in  some  measure,  the  Passion  of  Christ ;  but  nothing 
resembles  it  so  much  as  the  penances  imposed  from 
time  to  time  on  those  whom  He  calls  His  Children, 
whom  He  loves  with  the  same  love  with  which  He 
loved  His  Son.  We  must  take  heed  not  to  seem 
bastards  in  our  affliction,  as  this  very  affliction  ac- 
cording to  the  Apostle  is  a  proof  that  we  are  not 
bastards  but  sons." 

As  Lancelot  says,  the  whole  population  of  Vincennes 
regarded  St  Cyran  as  a  saint,  an  opinion  shared  by  his 
confessor,  who  belonged  to  an  Order  of  Canons  which 
had  been  established  by  Henri  II.  at  Vincennes.  He 
frequently  sent  young  religious  to  talk  to  St  Cyran. 

There  was  also  in  Vincennes  at  the  time  of  St  Cyran, 
a  certain  General  de  Wert,  who  had  been  taken  prisoner 
of  war.  Richelieu  had  this  gentleman  invited  to  a  great 
spectacular  comedy,  "  Mirame,"  which  contained  allu- 
sions to  Anne  of  Austria's  supposed  affection  for  the 
late  Duke  of  Buckingham,  suggested  probably  by 
Richelieu  with  malignant  spite.2 

Various  bishops  were  present ;  a  future  Archbishop 
of  Sens,  a  disgrace  to  his  order,  had  acted  as  a  sort  of 
director  or  master  of  the  ceremonies.  De  Wert  was 

1  /.£.,  his  imprisonment. 

2  Sainte  Beuve's  note  is  too  good  to  omit : — "  Richelieu  narguant  la 
Reine  a  Mirame,  c'est  Pexact  vis  a  vis  de  Saint  Cyran  en  oraison  a 
Vincennes." 


MME.  LE  MAlTEE  119 

asked  what  he  thought.  The  General,  who  was  on  the 
eve  of  departure  and  had  no  special  reason  for  truckling 
to  Richelieu,  replied  that  everything-  was  very  wonder- 
ful ;  one  thing  in  particular  excited  his  surprise.  What 
was  this?  everyone  asked.  "It  is  this,"  said  he,  "that 
in  the  Very  Christian  Kingdom  of  France,  Bishops  are 
to  be  seen  at  the  Play  (and  such  a  play !) ;  Saints  are 
to  be  seen  in  prison."  Of  course  Richelieu  was  told  of 
this  mot,  but  he  took  no  notice.  Another  friend  whom 
M.  de  St  Cyran  made  at  Vincennes  was  a  German 
officer,  the  Baron  d'Ekenfort.  He  was  to  be 
exchanged  for  a  M.  de  Feuquieres,  whose  wife  was  the 
sister  of  the  M.  Arnauld  who  had  so  lately  escaped  from 
Philisbourg  with  M.  de  Sericourt.  D'Ekenfort  had 
been  released  and  had  gone  to  the  kind  and  hospitable 
M.  dAndilly,  when  to  his  horror  the  two  young  sons  of 
M.  de  Feuquieres  appeared  with  the  news  that  their 
father  was  dead. 

He  had  to  return  to  Vincennes,  and  then  he  found  in 
St  Cyran  a  true  friend.  He  never  forgot  St  Cyran,  to 
whom  he  seems  to  have  owed  a  real  conversion. 
Lancelot,  quoting  St  Jerome,  says,  "St  Cyran  con- 
verted his  prison  into  a  Christian  home." 

About  this  time  Catherine  Le  Mattre  became  a 
widow ;  she  had  been  separated  from  her  husband  for 
twenty-five  years,  and  ever  since  the  removal  of  the 
Port  Royal  nuns  to  Paris  had  spent  much  of  her  time 
with  Angelique  and  Agnes.  She  had  come  under 
St  Cyran's  influence,  and  for  some  time  before  her 
husband's  death  she  wore  the  dress  of  a  postulant. 
Mme.  Le  Maitre  seems  to  have  been  a  true  Arnauld, 
generous,  kind,  devout,  ready  as  were  her  brothers  and 
sisters  to  come  to  the  aid  of  their  dear  Angelique. 
She  was  evidently  a  person  of  consideration ;  she  was 
placed  in  charge  of  the  Mile,  de  Longueville,  who  was 
the  stepdaughter  of  the  great  Conde's  sister,  the  second 
wife  of  the  Due  de  Longueville. 

Mile,    de    Longueville1    was    not    a    very    amiable 

1  She    became    Duchesse    de    Nemours.      Her   Memoirs  are    well 
known. 


120  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYEAN 

person,  and  did  much  to  increase  the  unhappiness  of 
her  stepmother's  life.  Her  own  mother  had  known 
Mere  Angelique  ever  since  the  Maubuisson  days. 

In  1640  Catherine  became  a  novice.  There  were 
now  at  Port  Royal,  Angelique,  Agnes,  Catherine  Le 
Maitre,  Marie  Claire,  Anne,  Madeleine,  and  their 
mother. 

Mme.  Arnauld  had  been  a  nun  at  Port  Royal  since 
1629,  and  had  lived  a  life  of  extreme  piety  and  austerity. 
In  1636  she  lost  her  son  Simon,  who  was  killed  in  battle, 
and  for  him  she  mourned,  it  is  said,  with  thankfulness 
that  he  had  not  fallen  in  a  duel. 

Her  youngest  son,  Antoine,  who  was  to  become  the 
most  famous  of  the  Arnaulds,  had  also  just  before  her 
death  become  a  convert.  Sainte  Beuve  observes  {Port 
Royal,  vol.  ii.,  p.  12):  "On  appelle  conversion  a  Port 
Royal  .  .  .  ce  qui  semblerait  un  surcroit  presque  sans 
motif  dans  un  christianisme  moins  interieur." 

Probably  no  Port  Royalist  would  agree  as  to  the 
absence  of  motive,  and  many  Christians  have  known 
what  it  is  to  pass  from  intellectual  agreement  and  a  life 
of  discipline  to  the  living,  inward  apprehension  of  what 
self-surrender  to  Christ  means. 

This  is  what  happened  to  young  Antoine  Arnauld, 
of  whom  we  must  speak  later.  His  conversion  was  that 
final  blessing  which  no  doubt  made  his  mother  say  her 
Nunc  Dimittis.  Early  in  1641  Mme.  Arnauld  died, 
leaving  a  message  to  her  "  Benjamin,"  exhorting  him 
never  to  cease  to  defend  the  truth. 

It  seems  a  long  time  since  that  Journe"e  du  Guichet, 
when  the  still  young  mother  took  a  rash  vow  never  to 
cross  the  threshold  of  Port  Royal,  and  poor  Angelique 
fell  fainting  before  her  enraged  parents.  Mme.  Arnauld 
was  only  eighteen  years  older  than  the  daughter  who 
became  her  mother  in  religion,  and  whom  St  Catherine 
de  Sainte  F6licite  (as  Mme.  Arnauld  was  known  in 
religion)  treated  with  the  deepest  reverence  and  respect. 
A  striking  contrast  to  some  devout  and  excellent  ladies, 
who  can  never  believe  their  daughters  of  forty  and 
upwards  to  be  grown  up  and  sensible  women. 


DEATH  OF  MME.  ARNAULD         121 

Mere  Ange"lique  with  her  five  sisters  knelt  round 
their  dying  mother  as  M.  Singlin  said  the  last  prayers, 
and  heard  her  murmur,  "  Draw  me  to  Thee,  O  God," 
or,  "How  amiable  are  Thy  tabernacles,"  until  at  last 
she  quietly  gave  up  her  soul  to  God. 

Certainly  Mme.  Arnauld,  the  youthful  bride  of 
Antoine  Arnauld,  the  mother  of  his  twenty  children, 
must  have  been  a  remarkable  woman.  She  had  a  full 
share  of  the  generosity  and  devotion  which  charac- 
terised the  Arnaulds,  and,  like  her  daughter  Angelique, 
possessed  a  capacity  for  growth  in  holiness.  She  had 
been  a  friend  to  St  Cyran,  who  frankly  owns  in  a  letter 
to  her  eldest  son  M.  d'Andilly  that  he  had  wept  for 
Mme.  Arnauld.  He  added  what  was  the  keynote  of 
Port  Royal,  at  least  in  his  time  :  "  She  (Mme.  Arnauld) 
always  believed  that  it  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  be 
saved." 

Her  grandson,  M.  de  Saci,  wrote  a  letter  to  M.  Le 
Maitre  which  shows  the  reverence  her  descendants  had 
for  her,  and  which  breathes  the  lofty  atmosphere  of  the 
Arnauld  family ;  " plain  living  and  high  thinking"  had 
certainly  come  to  be  their  way  of  life. 

Antoine  Arnauld,  of  whom  we  must  now  speak,  had 
gone  through  the  usual  University  studies  and  had 
begun  the  study  of  law  in  company  with  his  nephew, 
M.  Le  Maitre,  who  was  about  five  years  his  senior,  and 
whose  retirement  no  doubt  had  a  great  effect  on  young 
Antoine.  Influenced  by  his  devout  mother,  he  turned 
from  law  to  theology  under  the  very  same  professor 
(Lescot)  who  examined  St  Cyran  at  Vincennes. 
Antoine  was  the  most  brilliant  of  his  brilliant  family, 
and  his  career  during  his  studies  in  theology  was 
marked  by  a  succession  of  achievements.  Everything 
seemed  to  point  to  a  prosperous  career. 

But  the  same  voice  was  calling  him  which  had 
called  his  uncle  a  few  months  ago,  the  same  doubts, 
the  same  sense  of  "  vanitas  vanitatum,"  the  same  long- 
ing for  the  Eternal.  St  Cyran  was  already  in  prison. 
Antoine  sent  him  a  letter  through  his  brother,  M, 
d'Andilly, 


122  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

"Dec.  24,  1638. 

"  MON  P£RE, 

"May  I  call  you  by  this  name,  since 
God  gives  me  the  wish  to  be  your  son  ?  I  see  indeed 
in  His  sight  how  unworthy  I  have  made  myself  to  be 
this^  and  that  your  charity  so  often  held  out  arms  to 
receive  me.  I  deserve  indeed  by  a  just  judgment  to  be 
deprived  now  of  a  help  which  I  did  not  seek,  as  I  ought 
to  have  done,  when  it  was  fully  offered  me.  It  was  not, 
thank  God,  from  lack  of  reverence  for  truths  which  it 
has  pleased  the  Divine  Goodness  to  teach  me  through 
you  :  but  one  of  these  truths  is  that  the  light  which  we 
have  only  serves  to  condemn  us,  if  it  meets  with  no 
correspondence  and  does  not  produce  in  us  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit.  I  am  compelled  to  reproach  myself,  so  that 
I  may  not  be  condemned  by  Jesus  Christ  one  day  in 
the  presence  of  His  Angels,  that  I  have  held  for  so  long 
the  truth  in  unrighteousness.  I  have  done  nothing 
which  I  was  told  to  do,  and  I  was  satisfied  to  have  the 
thoughts  of  a  child  of  God  and  to  do  the  works  of  a 
child  of  the  world.  I  have  been  for  so  many  years  in  a 
perpetual  lethargy,  seeing  what  was  right  and  not  doing 
it,  and  I  know  by  my  own  experience  the  truth  of 
this  word  of  the  Holy  Spirit :  Fascinatio  nugacitatis 
obscurat  bona. 

"At  last,  my  Father,  for  about  three  weeks,  God 
has  spoken  to  my  heart  and  has  given  me  at  the  same 
time  ears  to  hear  Him.  He  gave  me  one  of  His 
servants  to  direct  me  in  His  ways :  M.  le  Feron  :  but 
he  sees  now,  and  so  do  I,  that  everything  was  hurried  too 
much  in  his  direction  of  me,  that  more  time  was  needed 
in  this  very  serious  matter.  But  he  has  decided  that 
provided  I  really  mean  to  supplement  later  what  was 
done  rather  too  quickly,  the  press  of  occupations  would 
be  an  excuse  for  his  mistake.  I  want  to  explain  this  to 
you  privately ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  do  so  in  a  letter. 
I  am  only  sorry  that  either  I  must  give  up  my  Licentiate, 
or  take  the  Sub-Diacpnate ;  I  have  already  got  my 
degree  againt  rules,  since  I  ought  to  have  been  in 
Orders  to  do  so.  I  know  full  well  that  this  necessity,  if 
it  had  been  my  only  motive,  would  have  been  a  poor 
excuse  in  God's  sight  for  approaching  His  altar:  but 
M.  le  Feron  thinks  that  as  God  in  His  infinite  mercy 
has  given  me  some  inclination  for  this  calling,  so  this 
reason,  which  certainly  was  not  enough  by  itself  for 


ANTOINE  ARNAULD  (LE  DOCTEUE)  123 

taking  Orders,  was  an  additional  reason.  I  took  them 
then  by  his  advice,  after  a  fortnight's  retreat,  which  I 
knew  too  well  was  nothing-  in  preparation  for  such  a  step. 
I  beg  you  for  the  sake  of  God  not  to  forsake  me  in  the 
great  need  I  have  of  advice.  God  has  given  me  in 
His  great  goodness  the  wish  to  do  everything  He  shall 
ask  of  me.  That  is  why  I  beg  you,  my  Father,  to 
direct  me  as  one  who  is  ready  unreservedly  to  follow 
God's  voice  wherever  it  shall  call  me.  If  you  decide 
that  it  is  His  will  that  I  should  retire  into  solitude  and 
weep  over  my  sins,  I  am  ready  to  leave  all.  If  you 
believe  He  does  not  will  that  I  should  serve  His  altar, 
I  will  never  approach  it,  and  I  will  ask  His  forgiveness 
all  my  life  for  having  undertaken  an  office  which  I  was 
unworthy  to  exercise.  Ah,  my  Father,  if  only  Divine 
Providence  had  willed  that  I  should  open  my  heart  in 
your  presence,  and  I  could  have  had  from  your  mouth 
the  teaching  I  needed  for  my  salvation !  But  so  long  as 
God  permits  I  will  be  the  son  of  your  bonds.  M.  le 
Feron  has  proposed  to  take  me  into  his  house  during 
Lent,  so  that  I  may  give  myself  up  to  study  and  prayer, 
far  from  the  perplexity  of  the  business  and  news  of  the 
world.  It  is  time,  my  Father,  to  end,  and  I  beg  you 
for  the  ^  sake  of  the  Blood  of  Christ,  and  because  of 
St  Paul's  words,  Infirmum  autem  in  fide  suscipite^  not  to 
refuse  me  that  advice  which  a  sinner  begs  for  his 
soul's  salvation." 

St  Cyran's  heart  must  have  leaped  up  with  joy  when 
this  Christmas  greeting  reached  him  in  his  dreary  prison. 
He  writes  with  that  sternness  which  just  does  not 
hinder  his  tenderness:  "You  are  indeed  blessed  to 
have  reached  the  point  you  have  reached,  and  I  am 
blessed  no  less  if  God  has  made  use  of  me  to  lead  you 
on  in  the  path  into  which  He  has  brought  you.  You  are 
the  master  of  my  life,  now  that  you  are  God's  servant. 
The  dignity  of  the  Doctor's  degree  has  led  you  away 
as  beauty  led  away  the  two  old  men  in  the  History  of 
Susanna."  (Sainte  Beuve  quotes  a  saying,  "  Each  of 
us  has  his  Venus.") 

But  St  Cyran  did  not  require  from  his  new  disciple 
that  retirement  which  he  had  exacted  from,  or  at  any 
rate  sanctioned  in  Le  Maitre  and  De  Saci.  He  advised 


' 

fl  r*.  r  -rt_, , 


124  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE   ST  CYEAN 

him  to  go  on  to  the  end  of  his  studies — only  in  a 
different  spirit  and  with  the  help  of  a  disciplined  life — 
prayer,  fasting-,  reading  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  alms- 
giving. Up  to  this  time  Antoine  had  been  a  learned, 
but  also  a  somewhat  worldly  young  Bachelor  of  Arts, 
enjoying  life,  and,  as  we  should  say,  a  well-set-up  young 
man.  Now  he  was  to  change  all  this.  It  appears  that 
he  gave  his  share  of  his  paternal  inheritance  to  Port 
Royal.  The  "  Solitaires"  of  Port  Royal  did  give  their 
goods  to  Port  Royal,  but  how  they  managed  their 
financial  affairs  was  concealed,  and  with  good  reason.1 

Antoine  was  ordained  Priest,  and  received  his 
Doctor's  degree,  taking  the  oath  which  he  tried  so  hard 
to  keep,  of  which  his  mother  on  her  deathbed  had 
reminded  him — "to  defend  the  truth" — "usque  ad 
effusionem  sanguinis." 

Mme.  le  Maitre  wrote  to  Antoine  as  follows  : — 

"  I  see  in  you,"  she  says,  "almost  a  new  brother,  bound 
to  me  by  a  bond  as  close  as  that  which  unites  me  to  my 
children,  and  they  can  only  think  of  you  as  of  a  brother. 
Ah,  if  you  only  knew  how  these  hermits,  '  the  Soli- 
taires,' besought  God  for  you,  and  how  dear  you  already 
are  to  them,  you  would  love  them  more  than  [we  do]." 

On  All  Saints'  Day,  1641,  Antoine  said  his  first 
Mass,  after  a  month's  Retreat. 

At  Port  Royal  itself  there  had  been  sickness  and 
death.  Marie  Claire  died  in  June  1642,  and  Mother 
Agnes,  the  Abbess,  nearly  followed  her.  So  great  was 
the  danger,  that  Extreme  Unction  was  administered  to 
Agnes  on  the  very  day  of  Marie  Claire's  funeral. 

Mere  Angelique  wrote  to  her  youngest  brother, 
Antoine,  a  day  or  two  before  Marie  Claire's  death : — 

"  Our  poor  Marie  Claire  is  ever  growing  worse,  and  I 
do  not  think,  dear  brother,  that  she  will  last  more  than 
two  days.  This  is  a  very  real  loss  to  us,  but  it  is  an 
offering  we  owe  to  God,  and  we  must  try  to  make  it 
a  willing  sacrifice,  so  t that  He  may  be  pleased.  She  is 
in  peace,  and  in  that  joy  which  the  grace  of  God  alone 
can  give  in  the  midst  of  the  bitterness  of  death." 

1  See  Sainte  Beuve,  Port  Royal \  vol  ii.,  p.  15. 


DEATH  OF  EICHELIEU  125 

Agnes  had  now  been  Abbess  for  six  years,  and 
Angelique,  who,  twelve  years  before,  had  resigned  her 
office,  was  re-elected,  much  against  her  will.  Since  the 
arrest  of  St  Cyran,  M.  Singlin  had  directed  the  Port 
Royalists,  and  Angelique  in  obedience  to  his  advice 
yielded  and  submitted  to  the  wishes  of  the  Port 
Royalists. 

At  the  end  of  1642,  when  Richelieu  was  very  ill, 
Agnes  writes  as  follows  to  a  young  nun  at  Port  Royal 
(apparently  both  were  at  Port  Royal,  but  Agnes  wrote 
to  reprove  the  novice,  and  seems  to  have  preferred  to 
scold  her  gently  though  severely  by  letter) : — 

"  I  beg  you  to  pray  God  thrice  daily  for  the  Cardinal 
that  he  may  be  changed ;  pray  with  a  real  wish  that 
God  may  give  you  Christian  feelings  for  him."  It  is 
touching  to  see  the  eagerness  with  which  Agnes  took 
the  lower  place  after  her  resignation. 

1642  had  been  a  busy  year  in  Richelieu's  life.  It 
had  seen  his  final  triumph  and  the  dismal  downfall  of 
Cinq  Mars,  of  De  Thou,  and  the  exile  of  Gaston,  Due 
D'Orleans.  Marie  de'  Medicis-was  in  exile  and  loneli- 
ness at  Cologne ;  Louis  XIII.  was  absolutely  Richelieu's 
tool,  ready  to  obey  his  will,  and  indeed  forced  to  see 
that  the  great  Minister  was  indispensable.  France  was 
successful  abroad,  and  the  end  of  the  miserable  Thirty 
Years'  War  was  at  hand. 

And  Richelieu  and  his  King  were  alike  near  to 
death. 

The  Cardinal  faced  his  doom  with  lofty  calmness 
and  absolute  fearlessness.  "  Dieu  sait  le  secret  de  la 
confiance  avec  laquelle  cet  homme  qui  avait  ete  si  peu 
misericordieux,  attendait  la  misericorde  de  son  souverain 
juge,"  says  the  historian  Henri  Martin,  and  it  is  not 
necessary  for  us  to  examine  the  verdicts  which  history 
has  pronounced  on  his  work.  He  has  never  been  a 
popular  hero,  and  the  people  have  judged  rightly.  To 
quote  Dean  Kitchin,  "  we  shall  condemn  the  strong  man 
armed  who  gave  no  thought  to  his  oppressed  and  labour- 
ing countrymen,  and  made  constitutional  life  impossible 
for  France." 


126  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

Richelieu  was  utterly  unaffected  by  moral  ideals  ; 
hence  his  inability  to  understand  St  Cyran.  He  is  of 
the  line  of  statesmen  who  have  shaped  their  own  and 
their  country's  policy  with  no  other  view  or  motive  than 
that  of  pure  selfishness. 

He  believed  that  though  a  man,  a  single  individual, 
might  conceivably  order  his  conduct  on  Christian  and 
moral  principles,  a  nation  could  not. 

This  marks  the  great  difference  between  the  wars  of 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  and  those  of 
the  centuries  preceding  them.  At  least,  those  earlier 
wars  were  often  fought  out  for  ideas,  and,  however  short 
the  performance  might  fall,  were  ennobled  by  loftiness 
of  ideal. 

And  Port  Royal  and  its  struggles  typify  unworldli- 
ness ;  spirituality  struggling  against  all  that  made  up 
worldliness,  low  aims,  slackness.  The  seventeenth 
century  was  a  religious  century,  but  Richelieu  paved  the 
way  for  the  absolute  rule  of  Louis  XIV.  and  all  that 
that  rule  implied — official  religion,  no  inconvenient  zeal, 
disregard  of  the  poor  and  needy,  vainglory  and  pomp. 
For  the  last  time  France  had  the  offer  of  spiritual 
awakening,  and  again  the  offer  was  rejected.  When  it 
came  again,  it  was  not  proffered  by  those  who  spoke  the 
Christian  language  or  presented  the  Christian  ideals. 

Richelieu  died  on  December  4,  1642. 

M.  de  St  Cyran  received  the  news,  noticed  that  it 
was  St  Cyran's  Day,  and  then,  taking  his  breviary,  said 
the  Vespers  of  the  Dead.  He  writes  to  the  Princesse 
de  Guemenee : — 

'  What  has  become  of  him  who  indeed  as  long  as  he 
lived  made  Europe  tremble,  as  he  himself  said  before  he 
died  ?  ^  I  cannot  resist  telling  you  that  his  death  was  as 
surprising  as  his  life,  and  that  if  the  first  supplied  to  the 
clever  ones  of  the  earth  ample  materials  for  history,  the 
latter  gave  no  less  occasion  for  thought  to  spiritual  men. 
As  human  senses  are  accustomed  to  certain  objects 
which  do  not  concern  them  although  they  concern  others, 
so  the  minds  of  those  who  live  apart  from  the  world 
grow  inured  to  events  which  disquiet  others.  I  do  not 


ST  CYEAN  EELEASED  127 

know  to  which  I  belong ;  but  I  am  speaking  the  truth 
when  I  say  that  this  death  has  left  me  just  as  I  was 
before ;  I  only  felt  a  certain  compassion." 

Various  friends  hurried  to  see  the  prisoner  when 
release  seemed  at  hand,  and  amongst  these  his  dear 
Claude  Lancelot,  who  took  with  him,  he  tells  us,  some 
of  the  children  he  was  educating.  Claude  tells  us  how 
on  entering  St  Cyran's  room  he  felt  as  if  he  were  enter- 
ing the  cell  of  a  martyr,  and  how  St  Cyran  blessed  the 
children,  crossing  their  hands  and  saying:  "  I  am  not  a 
Bishop,  but  still  I  am  a  Priest  of  Jesus  Christ."  Then 
they  walked  in  the  garden,  praying  in  the  chapel  as 
they  went  and  returned.  Antoine  Arnauld  came  in  also, 
eager,  with  all  the  controversial  zeal  which  was  his  great 
characteristic,  about  a  certain  M.  le  Moine  who  had  at 
Richelieu's  request  attacked  Jansenius. 

Lancelot  goes  on  to  say  that  he  never  could  forget 
his  visit,  and  lamented  that  St  Cyran  had  had  no  one 
near  him  in  his  imprisonment  to  gather  up  what  had 
fallen  from  him  in  those  weary  years,  but  he  says  in  his 
naive  way,  "God  did  not  permit  it,  and  it  would  have 
been  difficult.  For  great  virtues  are  not  noisy  any 
more  than  are  great  rivers.  They  already  have  some- 
thing of  that  peace  of  God  which  cannot  be  shaken, 
which  we  admire,  but  which  we  cannot  understand." 
He  goes  on  to  speak  of  those  who  live  in  this  peace : 
"It  is  a  participation  in  the  life  of  the  blessed,  and  a 
beginning  of  that  ineffable  union  with  God  Himself 
which  will  be  perfected  only  in  Heaven.  It  seems  to  me 
that  those  who  enjoy  such  happiness  have  nothing  to 
fear  save  being  shaken  in  this." 

Louis  XIII.,  according  to  Lancelot,  opened  the 
prison  door  to  all  Richelieu's  prisoners,  and  M.  de 
Chavigny,  the  Governor  of  Vincennes,  and  M.  Mole, 
offered  themselves  as  securities  for  St  Cyran.  On  the 
6th  of  February  1642,  St  Cyran  left  his  prison;  his 
dear  and  faithful  friend  dAndilly  conveyed  him  away 
in  his  carriage,  amidst  farewells  and  tears  of  regret  on 
the  part  of  those  whom  he  was  leaving.  The  first  thing 


128  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE   ST  CYEAN 

to  do,  d'Andilly  thought,  was  to  go  and  call  on  and 
thank  St  Cyran's  two  friends.  M.  de  Chavigny  was 
out,  and  Mme.  de  Chavigny  received  the  ex-prisoner 
with  all  the  haughtiness  of  a  great  lady,  and  evidently 
succeeded  in  giving  him  the  cold  shoulder.  He  said 
very  little,  Lancelot  tells  us,  but  the  impression  produced 
by  Mme.  de  Chavigny  was  such  that  St  Cyran  never 
went  again  to  her  house.  M.  de  Chavigny,  however, 
often  saw  him.  M.  le  President  Mole"  gave  him  a  warm 
welcome,  and  he  then  went  on  to  Port  Royal,  where  his 
nephew  awaited  him.  That  morning  Mere  Agnes  had 
entered  the  refectory,  and  had  unloosed  her  girdle  before 
the  Community,  which  sign  the  Sisters  at  once  under- 
stood. They  met  him  first  in  their  chapel,  where  they 
sang  a  Te  Deum,  and  then  assembled  in  the  parlour. 
Here  a  funny  little  incident  occurred.  One  of  the  Priests 
took  up  an  eyeglass  and  inspected  St  Cyran,  to  see  if  it 
were  really  he,  and  this  so  upset  one  nun,  that  she  burst 
into  laughter ;  her  untimely  mirth  spread,  and  the  over- 
strained Sisters  fairly  giggled.  St  Cyran  was  terribly 
austere,  and  the  wretched  Sisters  must  have  quaked  as 
they  heard  his  words,  "  I  had  something  to  say,  but  it 
must  be  for  another  time." 

Poor  little  nun,  one  hopes  Mere  Angdique  was  not 
unduly  severe. 

St  Cyran  slept  at  Port  Royal  and  the  next  day 
returned  to  his  own  rooms,  but  he  came  frequently  to 
Port  Royal,  and  a  week  after  his  release  a  Mass  of 
Thanksgiving  was  said.  He  was  too  ill  to  celebrate,  so 
M.  Singlin  was  the  Celebrant  and  Antoine  Arnauld  and 
M.  de  Rebours  (he  who  had  caused  the  unseemly 
laughter)  were  the  Deacons.  Then  the  nuns  sang  a 
Te  Deum,  and  St  Cyran  for  once  let  himself  go.  He 
went  into  the  sacristy  and  asked  them  to  try  the  "  Sors 
Scriptorum."  Antoine  had  a  Psalter,  and  Psalm  xxxiv.1 
was  found  by  M.  Singlin.  St  Cyran  sent  everyone 
out  of  the  church,  but  Lancelot  and  M.  Singlin  hid 
themselves  and  watched  him  as  he  lay  prostrate,  weeping, 
reciting  the  Psalm,  yielding  at  last  to  a  burst  of  thanks- 

1  In  our  version  Ps.  xxxv.,  "  Judica  Domine." 


THE  PEEIOD  OF  M.  DE  ST  CYRAN     129 

giving-  and  of  emotion.  For  the  strain  must  have  been 
terrible,  and  he  was  safe  among-  the  friends  whom  he 
loved  so  much,  and  for  whose  souls  he  watched  and 
prayed  and  yearned.  Then  came  a  time  of  continual 
visits  from  people  who  crowded  to  see  him.  He  left 
Paris  for  Port  Royal  des  Champs  in  order  to  bestow 
some  words  of  counsel  on  his  spiritual  sons. 

M.  Le  Maitre  was,  with  St  Cyran's  approval,  working 
at  Hebrew  and  translating  portions  of  the  Psalms  and 
of  the  Fathers,  and  also  working  with  his  hands.  He 
is,  as  we  have  said  before,  the  penitent  par  excellence, 
with  great  gifts  of  intellect  and  of  nature,  full  of  legal 
acumen,  of  imagination,  of  fervour. 

Sainte  Beuve  has  a  fine  passage  :  "  Si  ces  Solitaires 
que  nous  avons  a  enumerer  maintenant  et  a  faire  passer 
devant  nous  avaient  du  sortir  de  leur  desert  et  faire 
interruption  dans  le  siecle,  comme  on  1'a  vu  plus 
d'une  fois  de  ceux  de  la  Thebaide  accourant  dans  Alex- 
andrie.  .  .  .  c'est  avec  M.  Le  Maitre  en  tete  qu'on  les 
aurait  vus  marcher." 

Great  was  Le  Maitre's  joy  to  see  the  dear  Master  at 
Port  Royal  des  Champs.  Nicholas  Fontaine,  who  has 
left  memoirs  touching  and  beautiful  in  their  simple  piety 
and  whole-hearted  devotion  to  Port  Royal,  has  described 
this  visit.  They  met,  and  tenderly  did  St  Cyran  em- 
brace the  faithful  disciple  whom  he  had  guided  into  this 
way.  He  was  much  pleased  with  Port  Royal,  and  had  a 
long  talk  with  Le  Maitre.  At  Ferte-Milon  some  devout 
ladies  had  pressed  themselves  on  M.  Le  Maitre,  in- 
tending to  follow  his  example  and  go  into  retirement ; 
but  at  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  M.  Singlin  seems  to  have 
dropped  a  hint  of  this  to  M.  de  St  Cyran,  who  had 
cautioned  Le  Maitre  to  be  extremely  careful  in  all 
relations  with  women.  Le  Maitre,  with  characteristic 
impetuosity,  resolved  for  the  future  to  speak,  not  only 
to  no  woman,  but  also  to  no  man.  St  Cyran  gently 
reproved  him  in  the  course  of  this  conversation,  and  also 
assured  him  of  Singlin's  perfect  innocence  as  to  any 
mischief-making.  The  Solitaires  were  very  human! 
Then  came  a  discussion  on  a  translation  of  some 

I 


130  THE  PERIOD   OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

parts  of  Cicero,  and  then   M.   de  St   Cyran  went  on 
to  say : — 

"  I  am  nothing,  but  God  is  all.  I  am  indeed  rejoiced 
that  He  has  planted  in  your  soul  a  gratitude  (which  is 
not  often  found)  for  the  extraordinary  grace  which  He 
has  bestowed  on  you  by  calling  you  to  Him.  It  is  true 
that  men  often  think  they  have  surrendered  themselves 
to  God  when  they  have  received  [something]  from  Him, 
and  many  lose  that  grace  because  they  have  not  valued 
it  enough.  I  myself  fear  failure  in  this  along  with 
other  people,  and  I  would  desire  no  other  grace  in  this 
world  than  that  of  never  growing  lukewarm  in  the  sense 
of  what  God  has  given  me ;  above  all  in  my  imprison- 
ment, which  brought  to  me  such  great  and  wonderful 
favours  that  I  could  wish  nothing  else  except  that  I 
might  tell  everyone  what  I  was  and  am  in  my  failures, 
which  would  make  the  magnificence  of  His  grace  better 
realised.  Only  to  think  of  it  fills  me  with  emotion.  It 
would  be  very  wrong1  if  I  complained  about  my  imprison- 
ment. I  could  on  the  contrary  have  desired  that  it 
might  last  to  my  life's  end,  and  that  my  life  might  be 
long  or  short  as  He  pleased." 

Fontaine  gives  us  some  admirable  words,  uttered  as 
St  Cyran  strolled  round  Le  Maitre's  room  glancing  at 
his  books.  St  Augustine  was  the  greatest,  he  said,  of 
the  Latin  Fathers  ...  As  Apelles  and  other  great 
painters  executed  many  works  about  which  they  said 
little,  and  have  executed  only  three  or  four  chef 
d'ceuvres  which  are  inimitable,  so  God  has  lesser  works, 
that  is  to  say,  men  to  whom  He  has  given  less  grace, 
and  a  few  incomparable  men,  as  are  St  Augustine  and 
a  few  others.  St  Chrysostom  is  the  most  excellent  of 
the  Greek  Fathers.  St  Ambrose  is  excellent;  he  is 
obscure  and  he  is  not  in  such  great  esteem,  because  he 
is  not  understood.  St  Jerome  has  less  of  the  spirit  of 
Christianity  than  the  others.  St  Cyprian  is  excellent. 
And  so  until  he  reached  St  Bernard,  who  is  the 
last  of  the  Fathers — "A  burning  spirit,  a  true 
Christian  gentleman,  a  philosopher  on  the  subject  of 
grace." 

The  words  on  Aquinas  are  worth  quoting.     "St 


ST  CYKAN'S  EULES  131 

Thomas  is  a  great  Theologian,  an  extraordinary  Saint. 
No  Saint  has  reasoned  so  much  on  the  things  of  God. 
He  lived  in  an  epoch  when  philosophy  was  much 
thought  of  and  when  human  reason  was  exalted  " — the 
very  antithesis  of  St  Cyran ! 

Then  he  went  on  to  speak  of  the  regulation  of  the 
life  of  study,  and  his  six  points  are  worth  noticing. 
How  many  quarrels,  how  much  bitterness  would  be 
avoided  if  St  Cyran's  rule  were  ever  observed.  These 
are  his  rules,  shortened — St  Cyran  is  very  prolix ! — 

"The  first  rule  of  mine  is — you  must  guard  in  study 
(as  a  safeguard  against  the  temptations^  of  knowledge) 
against  any  worldly  interest,  and  reject  it  with  a 
generous  scorn,  as  the  Apostles  shook  the  dust  from 
their  feet  when  they  left  behind  them  private  homes  in 
which  they  only  found  the  world.  This  is  what  God 
has  given  you  grace  to  do  in  the  sight  of  all  Paris : 
which  should  cause  you  continual  joy  in  your  soul,  and 
make  you  every  moment,  as  it  were,  say  to  God  : 
'  Cantabiles  mini  erant  justificationes  tuae  in  loco 
peregrinationis  mea.^ 

"  The  second  rule  is — to  pray  in  every  place  according 
to  the  Apostle's  counsel :  '  Orate  in  omni  loco  levantes 
puras  manus,'  and  to  make  one's  readings  and  writings 
a  perpetual  prayer,  which  will  be  more  pleasing  to  God, 
because  it  is  uttered  in  humility  before  His  truth,  for 
the  sake  of  which  He  says  He  came  into  the  world ; 
and  because  of  that  saying,  we  must  love  truth  as  Jesus 
Christ  loved  it,  and  only  contemplate  it  as  a  ray 
dependent  on  His  light :  the  sight  of  truth  should  be  no 
more  separated  in  us  from  love,  than  it  can  be  separated 
from  its  source,  which  is  Jesus  Christ. 

"The  third  rule  is — that  we  should  gladly  speak  of 
what  we  are  doing  to  those  who  are  of  the  same  mind 
as  ourselves.  .  .  . 

"The  fourth  rule  is  .  .  .  that  if  the  knowledge  of 
divine  things  .  .  .  grows  in  us  more  than  .  .  .  love  and 
the  grace  of  our  Saviour,  we  shall  lose  that  which 
knowledge  brings.  .  .  . 

'  The  fifth  rule  is — that  love  must  ever  have  the  pre- 
eminence. .  .  . 

'  The  sixth  rule  is — that  one  of  the  chief  means  to 
prevent  being  puffed  up  by  knowledge  .  .  .  and  to  cause 


132  THE  PEEIOD  OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

love    to    outgrow    knowledge,    is   to    practise  manual 
labour.  ..." 

St  Cyran  went  on  to  ask  M.  d'Andilly  about  the 
children,  a  son  of  M.  d'Andilly  and  a  son  of  Mme.  de 
Saint  Ange,  who  were  being  brought  up  at  Port  Royal 
under  M.  Le  Maitre's  eye.  He  said : — 

"  But  as  we  were  speaking  about  children,  I  must 
thank  you  for  the  kindness  with  which  you  took  on 
yourself  little  d'Andilly's  and  the  small  Saint  Ange's 
education.  I  must  ask  your  pardon  for  having  pro- 
posed this  to  you.  .  .  .  There  is  no  more  meritorious 
work  in  God's  eyes  than  working  for  his  children.  I  am 
struck  by  the  fact  that  God  exalts  things  which  seem 
small  in  themselves.  That  compels  me  to  respect  every- 
thing. It  seems  to  me  that  when  the  things  which  seem 
small  have  some  relation  with  God,  we  must  regard 
them  as  great.  .  .  ." 

He  goes  on  to  say : — 

"  There  is  this  consolation  in  all  work  undertaken 
for  God,  that  he  does  not  ask  us  for  success  but  for 
work;  as  he  says  in  His  Gospel:  let  us  content  our- 
selves with  that,  and  have  no  care  whether  in  the  pains 
we  take  for  the  instruction  of  our  neighbour  we  succeed 
or  not."  He  went  on  to  speak  of  the  gravity  of  post- 
Baptismal  sin,  and  commended  Le  Maitre  for  not 
hurrying  on  the  children's  Confirmation. 

"You  know  each  private  individual  has  his  own 
Pentecost,  just  as  the  Church  has.  The  Sacrament  of 
Confirmation  is  the  Pentecost  of  Christians.  It  is 
misused  when  it  is  given  lightly  to  small  children." 

M.  de  Sdricourt  was  then  sent  for,  and  St  Cyran 
spoke  to  him  with  peculiar  tenderness,  thanking  him 
for  the  generous  offer  De  S6ricourt  had  made  to  share 
St  Cyran's  prison. 

It  was  time  now  for  St  Cyran  to  leave  Port  Royal, 
and  as  he  left  he  looked  round  on  the  quiet  valley  and 
said  he  would  scold  Mere  Ang£lique  for  leaving  so 
sweet  a  place.  And  so  they  parted,  never  to  meet  on 


ST  CYBAN'S  ADVICE  TO  M.   SINGLIN    133 

earth  again,  and  M.  Le  Maitre  turned  back  again  to  his 
life  of  study  and  of  prayer. 

M.  de  St  Cyran  was  not  absolutely  decided  as  to 
what  course  of  life  to  adopt  and  what  special  work  to 
take  up.  There  was  some  idea  that  he  should  work 
again  at  a  book  specially  directed  against  heresy,  and 
M.  Mole  helped  him  in  it.  Gifts  of  money  were  sent 
in  order  that  he  might  buy  books.  The  work  was  to 
be  against  Calvin's  errors  concerning  the  Eucharist, 
Penitence,  Justification,  Church  Authority  and  the 
Papal  Authority. 

But,  as  Lancelot  remarks,  St  Cyran  was  only  the 
David  who  collected  the  materials,  and  then  no  Solomon 
was  raised  up  to  form  out  of  these  a  stately  edifice.  Nor 
can  we  much  regret  this.  St  Cyran's  vocation  was  not 
really  to  write ;  his  was  the  living  influence  which  is 
transmitted  by  personal  contact,  by  individual  dealing, 
and  no  one  cared  less  for  posthumous  fame,  for  literary 
immortality  than  he. 

M.  Singlin,  who  had  replaced  St  Cyran  at  Port 
Royal,  longed  much  to  relinquish  his  office,  but  in  vain 
did  he  implore  his  friend  to  relieve  him.  "Every  day," 
he  said,  "  I  see  faults  that  I  commit  in  my  work." 

"We  have  to  learn,"  replied  St  Cyran,  "to  bear  our 
faults  ;  it  is  enough  if  we  own  them  before  God  ;  we 
must  not  think  of  them  any  more.  Our  whole  Ministry 
is  to  be  a  perpetual  prayer  and  a  perpetual  repentance. 
But  all  the  same,  we  must  not  leave  it. 

"  I  always  come  back  to  the  same  advice  that  I  have 
so  often  given  you,  and  which  I  give  myself— 
1 '  Pray  much,  and  never  be  in  a  hurry.' " 

And  he  went  on  to  say,  in  answer  to  some  further 
objections,  "You  must  remember  it  is  neither  he  who 
plants  nor  he  who  waters  who  does  anything  ;  the  growth 
comes  only  from  God." 

And  when  M.  Singlin  spoke  of  trouble  and  sorrow 
caused  him  by  two  penitents,  St  Cyran  replied  :  "  In  hoc 
positi  sumus.  That  is  what  we  are  for,  to  take  trouble. 
If  God  allows  our  profession  to  be  very  painful,  we 
must  take  it  in  patience  and  penitence." 


134  THE  PERIOD  OF  M.   DE  ST  CYRAN 

Then  Singlin  tried  his  best  to  be  excused  preaching", 
but  in  vain.  He  said  that  he  was  no  theologian,  which 
was  to  some  extent  true  then  ;  he  confessed  that  he  felt 
some  self-conceit  about  preaching- ;  that  he  had  once 
felt  vexed  when  he  had  come  to  preach  and  found  some 
one  else  was  to  take  his  place.  St  Cyran  took  no  notice 
of  the  first  point ;  people  of  the  calibre  of  d' Andilly  and 
M.  Le  Maitre  had  found  M.  Singlin  helpful,  but  he  did 
not  think  it  needful  to  remind  M.  Singlin  of  this,  and 
only  said  that  such  impulses  of  self-satisfaction  and 
displeasure  were  simply  temptations,  and  then  went  on 
to  describe  his  own  method  of  preparing  his  sermons. 

"He  began  with  prayer,  prayed  frequently  while  he 
was  writing  his  notes,  and  then,  after  his  sermon,  he 
retired  to  his  room  to  kneel  before  God ;  he  tried  to 
avoid  any  conversation  about  his  sermons  ;  he  ended  by 
saying,  '  Be  simple,  whether  it  be  in  teaching  or  in 
sermons  ;  leave  God  to  judge  you,  lest  you  fall  into 
greater  faults  than  those  you  think  you  have  committed. 
For  one  cannot  judge  of  one's  own  inward  ^  life,  ^  or  of 
anybody  else's,  without  God's  illuminating  light.' ' 

Louis  XIII.  died  on  Ascension  Day,  1643,  and  the 
Jesuits  immediately  renewed  their  attack  on  St  Cyran. 
A  special  attack  was  made  on  his  Catechism,  and  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris  was  nearly  persuaded  to  put  out  a 
condemnation  of  it,  when  through  the  efforts  of  the 
Princesse  de  Guemenee  this  was  prevented.  Rumours 
of  fresh  examinations,  of  summons  before  the  Arch- 
bishop, reached  St  Cyran's  ears ;  but  he  received  them 
quietly,  saying  with  a  smile  that,  as  God  had  helped  him 
to  escape  a  Cardinal,  he  would  probably  be  helped  to 
escape  an  Archbishop. 

Port  Royal  was  threatened ;  St  Cyran  took  away 
some  papers  which  he  had  left  there,  and  Mere 
Angelique  had  brought  before  her  the  possibility  of  very 
real  persecution. 

St  Cyran  wrote  her  a  long  letter,  in  which  he  says  : — 

"  The  only  thing  which  distresses  me  is  the  ignorance 
of  those  who  think  the  greatest  truths  of  religion  are 


DEATH   OF  ST  CYRAN  135 

errors.  There  is  only  one  thing  in  which  I  am  not  of 
your  opinion  :  I  think  weak  people  are  more  to  be  feared 
than  wicked  ones." 

But,  as  Lancelot  says,  the  tempest  passed  and  God 
delivered  His  Servant  and  gave  him  Peace.  Antoine 
Arnauld's  book,  of  which  we  must  now  speak,  Sur  la 
Frtquente  Communion,  had  just  appeared,  and  had 
already  provoked  fierce  animadversions.  Lancelot  tells 
us  that  St  Cyran  felt  that  the  approval  which  several 
Bishops  bestowed  on  this  book  was  a  vindication  of  his 
own  position.  To  all  intents  and  purposes  he  could  say 
his  Nunc  Dimittis. 

On  Sunday,  the  nth  October  1642,  St  Cyran  died, 
having1  received  the  last  Sacraments.  His  dear  and 
faithful  disciple,  Lancelot,  presided  over  what  seems  to 
us  the  horrible  mutilation  of  the  much-loved  frame. 
Various  portions  were  sent  to  special  friends  as  relics. 
In  particular,  M.  Le  Maitre  begged  to  have  St  Cyran's 
hands  for  his  aunt,  Mere  Angelique. 

On  1 3th  October  St  Cyran's  funeral  took  place,  amid 
a  concourse  of  distinguished  people,  clerical  and  lay. 
He  lies  in  the  Church  of  St  Jacques  du  Haut  Pas. 
His  Abbey  was  bestowed  on  M.  de  Barcos,  St  Cyran's 
sister's  son,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  Jesuits  to 
prevent  it.  M.  de  Chavigny  managed  this,  and  the 
Queen,  Anne  of  Austria,  observed  on  being  thanked : 
"  What  would  M.  d'Andilly  have  said  if  I  had  given  it 
to  anyone  else  ?  " 

St  Cyran  is  the  great  figure  of  Port  Royal.  Had  he 
lived,  as  Sainte  Beuve  says — if  Port  Royal  could  have 
been  saved  from  the  inextricable  labyrinths  of  contro- 
versy which  encompassed  it  later  on,  it  would  have  been 
by  following  his  method,  his  counsel.  Nothing  is 
further  from  the  truth  than  to  imagine  that  St  Cyran 
is  at  all  a  preacher  of  something  strange,  some  special 
doctrine.  Not  at  all ;  what  he  did  preach  was  the 
necessity  of  spiritual  religion.  There  are  many  voca- 
tions, many  and  divers  administrations,  and  to  St 
Cyran  was  given  the  austerity,  the  fear  and  trembling 


136  THE  PEEIOD  OF  M.   DE  ST  CYEAN 

of  many  another  saint.  Again,  to  quote  Sainte  Beuve  : 
"  From  the  beginning  of  Christianity  a  list  can  be 
drawn  up  of  those  on  the  one  hand  who  are  distin- 
guished for  love  and  tenderness ;  on  the  other,  for 
strength  and  sternness."  Yet  the  opposite  qualities 
meet  in  each,  and  the  stern  saint  is  known  as  the  tender 
saint  at  times — in  the  Lord. 

St  Cyran  was,  as  we  have  said,  a  supreme  director, 
and  as  one  turns  over  the  pages  of  his  letters  one  reads 
wonderful  aphorisms,  wonderful  sentences  of  stern, 
uncompromising  truth.  God  in  all,  man  nowhere. 
Surely  his  motto,  at  any  rate  in  his  happy  moods,  was, 
"Deus  est  enim  qui  operatur  in  vobis  et  velle  et 
perficere  pro  bona  voluntate." 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  "SOLITAIRES"  (1638) 

THE  little  group  of  "  Solitaires  "  or  hermits  who  had, 
almost  as  it  seemed  by  accident,  associated  themselves 
with  Port  Royal,  is  one  of  the  most  attractive  features 
of  this  unique  society.  St  Cyran  had  drawn  to  himself 
men  of  different  characters,  of  varying-  antecedents,  and 
each  of  his  spiritual  children  received  in  such  measure  as 
he  could  bear  it,  the  command,  "faites  penitence." 
Many  felt  the  need  of  retirement,  of  quiet,  and  by 
degrees  a  little  society  grew  up,  of  whom  M.  Le  Maitre 
was  the  forerunner  and  the  centre.  One  of  those  "  green 
isles  "  of  which  Keble  speaks  so  touchingly *  is  found 
here  at  Port  Royal. 

Again  and  again  in  every  age  men  are  found  who  feel 
the  work  of  Prayer  to  be  their  vocation.  They  carry  it 
out  in  different  ways,  but  the  underlying  principle  is  the 
same.  The  note  struck  by  one  such  society  may  be 
penitence ;  by  another,  service  in  foreign  missions ;  by 
another,  simply  living  the  life  of  Jesus  ;  but  in  all  such 
societies  there  will  be  penitence,  and  prayer,  and  service, 
and  the  love  of  Christ.  Only  because  human  nature  is 
limited  and  we  can  see  only  fragments  of  the  Eternal 
truth,  one  feature,  one  reflection  of  the  Christ  Life  is  apt 
to  be  forced  into  greater  prominence  at  one  time  than  at 
another. 

St  Cyran  is  stern  and  the  Port  Royalist  life  is  austere, 
but  was  there  no  cause  ?  Should  we  be  the  worse  if  a 
deeper  sense  of  the  awfulness  of  sin,  if  the  need  for  peni- 
tence took  greater  possession  of  our  souls  ? 

1  In  the  Poem  for  Advent  Sunday. 


138  THE   "SOLITAIKES" 

Now  we  turn  to  Fontaine,  who  together  with  Claude 
Lancelot  always  seems  the  most  lovable  and  attractive 
of  the  Port  Royal  group  outside  the  Arnauld  family. 

To  Fontaine  we  owe  Memoirs  which  are  some  of  the 
most  charming-  and  human  of  the  numerous  volumes 
which  have  been  written  about  Port  Royal.  He  indeed 
is  one  of  the  examples  of  that  beautiful  type  of  religion 
which  one  meets  with  in  France.  Naive,  tender,  humble, 
loving-,  with  no  self-consciousness,  no  shyness,  courage- 
ous, and  loyal,  and  enduring.  Sainte  Beuve  says  of 
him,  "Si  Port  Royal  a  eu  dans  Champagne  son  peintre 
r^gulier  et  severe,  il  a  par  moments  dans  Fontaine  son 
'  Fra  Bartolommeo,'"  and  compares  him  to  Madame  de 
Motteville,  who  possessed  imagination  "  sans  y  songer 
et  fait  vivre."1 

Nicholas  Fontaine  was  a  Parisian,  the  son  of  a 
writing-master,  who  died  when  his  son  was  only  twelve. 
Nicholas  had  been  strongly  recommended  by  his  father 
to  the  care  of  a  certain  Jesuit  Father,  who  was  a  relation 
of  the  family,  and  who  seems  to  have  been  very  kind  to 
the  boy,  but  for  some  reason  or  other  dissuaded  him 
from  entering  the  society.  Fontaine's  mother,  a  good 
and  pious  woman,  had  for  a  confessor  one  M.  Hillerin, 
a  great  friend  of  "  Messieurs  de  Port  Royal,"  in  whose 
parish  no  less  a  person  than  M.  d'Andilly  resided. 

M.  Hillerin  took  a  great  fancy  to  young  Nicholas, 
brought  him  to  live  in  his  house,  and  introduced  him  to 
the  great  d'Andilly,  for  whom  Fontaine  conceived  a 
passionate  enthusiasm. 

For  M.  Hillerin,  Nicholas  had  a  deep  affection.  He 
says  it  was  most  touching  to  observe  Hillerin's  deep 
piety  and  the  humility  which  led  him  to  make  his 
confessions  to  M.  de  Saci,  whom  he  had  known  as  a 
small  boy.  M.  Hillerin  resigned  his  parish  in  time,  led 
by  St  Cyran  to  a  desire  for  deeper  penitence  and  for 
retreat. 

Nicholas  was  left  by  him  at  Port  Royal.  The  former 
has  left  us  a  charming  description  of  his  early  shyness 
and  "mother-sickness,"  and  how  by  degrees  he  grew  to 

1  Port  Royal)  vol.  ii.,  pp.  246,  247. 


ETIENNE  DE  BASCLE  139 

love  the  "Solitaires"  and  the  life  at  Port  Royal.  He 
had  the  characteristic  indifference  of  a  Parisian  of  the 
seventeenth  century  for  the  country. 

"When,  in  order  to  take  the  air,  I  went  out  some- 
times and  walked  about  outside,  I  confess  that  I  felt 
struck  by  a  secret  terror  in  this  sad  solitude,  which 
seemed  to  weep  for  the  departure  of  'religieuses,'  who 
had  forsaken  it  for  some  years,  without  any  thought  of 
return.  Snakes  were  to  be  found  in  every  part  of  the 
gardens ;  everything-  was  in  that  state  of  dilapidation 
which  always  prevails  in  neglected  places.  If,  however, 
this  desert  could  have  felt,  it  must  have  been  glad  that 
the  '  Solitaires '  had  elected  to  reside  in  it,  and  had  set 
up,  while  they  awaited  the  return  of  the  Sisters,  a  well- 
known  school  of  penitence,  so  that  this  haunt  of  snakes 
was  changed  into  a  temple  of  God  and  a  place  of 
prayer."1 

When  Nicholas  had  settled  down  a  little,  he  made 
great  friends  with  a  M.  de  Bascle.  He  belonged  to 
the  first  group  of  "  Solitaires,"  as  he  had  joined  M.  Le 
Maitre  and  M.  de  Sericourt. 

M.  de  Bascle  had  come  to  Paris  in  1635,  after  a 
series  of  the  most  horrible  misfortunes  ;  he  was  the  son 
of  a  country  gentleman,  and  was  one  of  a  large  family  of 
brothers  and  sisters.  Three  of  these  brothers  were 
actually  found  strangled  in  their  cradles  ;  a  wretched  old 
woman  had  slaughtered  the  hapless  babes,  apparently 
because  she  really  believed  the  poor  children  would  aid 
some  horrible  incantation ! 

M.  Etienne  de  Bascle  grew  up  a  grave,  pure,  stead- 
fast youth,  and  fell  into  the  clutches  of  a  wicked  wife. 
It  really  seemed  as  if  the  Eumenides  were  pursuing  his 
fortunes.  After  a  miserable  life  with  her  and  a  very  bad 
illness,  in  which  he  was  a  prey  to  dreadful  visions,  he  was 
granted  a  vision  which  completely  turned  his  thoughts 
to  God.  When  after  long  delays  he  got  rid  of  his  wife, 
he  came  to  Paris,  and  fell  in  with  M.  de  St  Cyran,  who 
found  him  employment  as  a  tutor,  but  gave  him  no 
spiritual  aid,  as  de  Bascle  asked  for  none.  But  again 

1  Fontaine^  vol.  i.,  p.  218. 


140  THE   "SOLITAIRES" 

he  returned  to  Paris,  and  this  time  he  did  seek  out  St 
Cyran,  and  became  a  fervent  penitent,  joining  the 
Solitaires,  and  no  doubt  finding-  peace  and  happiness  at 
last.  He,  Lancelot  tells  us,  always  "called  me  his 
elder  brother."  The  two  had  made  their  confessions 
one  after  the  other  in  Holy  Week,  1638,  and  it  seems 
that  Etienne  de  Bascle  did  not  receive  absolution 
that  day.  Indeed,  he  continued  to  visit  St  Cyran 
at  Vincennes  and  received  later  the  gift  of  recon- 
ciliation. 

At  St  Cyran's  death,  M.  de  Bascle  was  the  subject 
of  one  of  those  cures  which  it  is  of  no  sort  of  use  to 
deny.  He  came  into  the  room  where  St  Cyran  was 
lying,  and  certainly,  Lancelot  says,  was  cured  of  his 
lameness,  by  the  touch  of  St  Cyran's  body. 

He  fell  ill  again  some  years  afterwards,  but  was 
again  restored.  He  attributed  his  recovery  to  prayers 
said  at  St  Cyran's  tomb,  rather  than  to  remedies  given 
him  by  a  quack  doctor. 

Nicholas  tells  us  how  he  saw  M.  Le  Maltre  in  a  grey 
coat  with  a  great  log  of  wood,  which  he  carried  up  and 
down  stairs  when  he  felt  cold,  until  he  warmed  himself 
by  the  exercise. 

Great  was  the  joy  of  the  young  recluse  when  he 
heard  that  M.  d'Andilly  was  coming.  And  the  follow- 
ing scene  seems  to  describe  a  bit  of  real  inhumanity  on 
the  part  of  M.  Le  Maitre  and  M.  Manguelen,  who  was 
the  confessor  to  the  "  Solitaires." 


"As  I  was  waiting  for  him  more  impatiently  than 
the  rest,  I  was  surprised  that  on  the  day  he  was  going 
to  arrive  at  noon,  after  I  had  read  aloud  during  dinner, 
as  is  the  ordinary  practice  of  communities,  I  saw  M. 
Manguelen  and  M.  Le  Maltre  coming  slowly  towards 
me,  with  bent  heads,  and  apparently  thinking  about 
nothing.  When  I  sat  down  to  dinner,  M.  Le  Maitre, 
pushed  on  by  M.  Manguelen,  who  let  him  be  the 
spokesman  ...  as  he  could  put  things  better  than 
M.  Manguelen,  said  in  a  sepulchral  tone:  'You  are 
very  fond  of  M.  d'Andilly,  aren't  you?'  'Yes,  surely,' 
said  I.  '  You  will  be  very  glad  to  see  him,  then  ? ' ' 


FAMILY  OF  M.   GENTIEN  THOMAS    141 

And  poor  Nicholas  goes  on  to  tell  a  dismal  tale. 
He  was  convinced  by  M.  Le  Maitre  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  avoid  M.  dAndilly,  and  when  they  met  he  was 
to  feign  extreme  stupidity.  He  did  this  so  obediently 
and  completely  that  M.  d'Andilly  (we  are  sure  with  a 
shrug-  of  his  shoulders)  observed  that  solitude  had 
apparently  turned  the  boy's  head. 

He  became  De  Saci's  special  follower,  and  as  we 
shall  see,  shared  his  imprisonment.  Probably,  indeed, 
Le  Maitre  and  M.  de  Manguelen  thought  De  Saci  a 
better  Superior  for  the  boy  than  old  M.  d'Andilly ;  but 
they  might  have  taken  another  and  less  fantastic  way 
of  separating  the  friends. 

About  1643,  a  whole  family  became  attached  to  Port 
Royal,  that  of  M.  Gentien  Thomas.  This  Norman 
family  was  much  the  same  in  character  as  the  Arnaulds. 
Indeed  it  is  from  this  worthy  section  of  society,  the 
upper  middle  class,  chiefly  "  Gens  de  la  Robe,"  that 
Port  Royal  was  recruited.  Some  great  people  came 
and  went,  but  these  families  of  Thomas  and  others 
were  the  genuine  Port  Royalists  who  were  grafted  in 
to  the  original  Arnauld  stock.  M.  Gentien  Thomas, 
whose  son,  M.  Pierre  Thomas  du  Fosse",1  has  left  us 
memoirs,  was  established  at  Rouen,  where  he  had 
married  a  wife,  and  was  much  esteemed  for  his  up- 
rightness and  faithfulness.  He  was  a  Maitre  des 
Requites. 

M.  Gentien  Thomas  was  distressed  and  vexed  by  the 
determination  of  his  Parish  Priest  to  give  up  his  cure 
of  souls.  Finding  that  it  was  St  Cyran  who  had 
brought  this  about,  off  went  M.  Gentien  Thomas  to 
remonstrate  with  St  Cyran,  and  found  him  at  Port 
Royal.  St  Cyran  listened  quietly  to  the  heated 
remonstrances  of  the  excellent  Rouen  gentleman,  and 
then  began  to  speak  himself.  To  such  effect  did  he 
speak,  that  M.  Gentien  forgot  all  about  his  Cure  and 
began  to  think  about  himself.  "  Indeed,  indeed  M. 

1  Le  Fossd  was  an  estate  in  Normandy  which  M.  Gentien  Thomas 
possessed,  and  which  M.  Pierre  Thomas  inherited,  and  from  which  he 
was  known  as  M.  du  Fosse". 


142  THE  "SOLITAIKES" 

1'AbbeY'  he  gasped  out  at  last,  "  I  thought  I  had  come 
to  see  you  about  my  Cure,  but  I  see  it  was  for  myself 
and  my  own  salvation." 

M.  Thomas  paid  St  Cyran  several  visits,  and  the 
effect  of  this  was  the  whole-hearted  conversion  of  the 
worthy  gentleman,  who  returned  to  Rouen,  resolved, 
like  Zaccheus,  "that  if  he  had  wronged  any  man  he 
would  restore  fourfold,"  and  that  he  would  try  to  bring- 
up  his  children  in  "  the  fear  of  the  Lord." 

M.  Pierre  Thomas  du  Fosse,  known  as  M.  du  Foss£, 
the  author  of  the  Mdmoires  which  bear  his  name,  tells 
us  that  the  effect  on  his  mother  was  not  less  profound. 
"  She  was  a  handsome  young  woman,  related  to  most 
of  the  principal  people  of  Rouen ;  she  was  much  liked 
by  her  relations,  whose  affection  she  returned  ;  she  was 
very  fond  of  society." 

M.  Thomas's  account  of  his  interviews  with  M.  de 
St  Cyran  so  wrought  on  his  wife  that  she  determined 
to  go  to  Paris  also,  and  was  taken  in  at  Port  Royal  by 
Mere  Angdique,  who  helped  and  guided  her  much. 
Then,  after  a  Retreat  of  some  six  weeks,  she  went  back 
to  her  husband,  and  they  both  resolved  to  lead  an 
entirely  new  life.  They  did  indeed  so  effectually  change 
their  habits  and  were  so  much  more  in  church  and  so 
much  less  in  the  world  than  in  former  days,  that 
much  gossip  was  excited  in  the  good  town  of  Rouen, 
and  people  jeered  and  wondered  at  the  couple  not  a 
little. 

M.  and  Madame  Thomas  retired  to  the  parish  of  Rou- 
ville,  near  Havre.  The  Cure  of  this  parish  was  M.  Guille- 
bert,  St  Cyran's  friend.  The  family  lived  in  the  house  of 
a  relation  of  theirs,  the  Dame  de  Fresle.  Here  also  lived 
the  mother  of  M.  de  Bernieres,  the  faithful  friend  of 
Port  Royal.  Du  Fosse  in  his  delightful  Mtmoires  gives 
a  charming  account  of  this  little  coterie,  which  was 
somewhat  akin  to  Little  Gidding. 

The  two  brothers,  the  Sieur  des  Landes  and  the 
Sieur  de  Bouteillerie,  whom  we  shall  see  attending  to 
the  elder  M.  Pascal  and  bringing  about  his  conversion, 
were  neighbours  of  the  Thomas  circle,  and  each  showed 


M.   GENTIEN  THOMAS'  SONS         143 

a  spirit  of  most  practical  piety,  by  building-  hospitals  on 
their  own  estates. 

Du  Fosse  gives  us  an  interesting-  description  of  the 
conversion  of  a  Jew;  the  whole  of  his  Me'moires  is 
delightful  quite  apart  from  Port  Royal  associations. 
He  paints  a  vivid  picture  of  the  times.  There  is  a  story 
of  the  murder  of  a  connection  of  his,  which  might  have 
come  straight  out  of  Dumas. 

Pierre  Thomas  says  that  at  home,  "the  fear  of 
God  was  instilled  into  us,  the  avoidance  of  sin,  a  great 
horror  of  deceit.  I  can  indeed  affirm  I  have  never 
known  more  sincere  and  open-hearted  people  than  my 
parents." 

M.  Gentien  Thomas  sent  his  boys  to  Port  Royal  to 
be  brought  up,  and  in  company  with  a  few  others  they 
studied  and  led  a  simple  innocent  life,  learning"  St 
Cyran's  Catechism  of  Thtologje  familiere,  and  were 
sheltered  entirely  from  any  breath  of  controversy. 

Pierre  Thomas  gives  a  delightful  description  of  the 
life  at  Paris  in  Les  P elites  E  coles.  He  tells  us  of  great 
games  of  soldiers,  and  how  he  and  his  companions 
made  a  fort,  which  was  regularly  attacked  and  defended. 
And  there  is  a  very  pretty  account  of  a  Twelfth  Day 
festivity  and  of  the  Twelfth  Day  King. 

The  boys  were  taken  on  Sundays  to  Vespers  at  the 
Chapel  of  Port  Royal,  and  heard  M.  Singlin's  great 
sermons  ;  he  seems  to  have  greatly  impressed  the  youth- 
ful Pierre.  M.  du  Fosse"  gives  interesting  details  about 
the  beginning  of  the  Fronde. 

The  young  Du  Fosse  went  to  Port  Royal  des 
Champs  in  1649.  Antoine  Le  Maitre  took  a  great 
fancy  to  him,  and  bestowed  endless  pains  on  his 
education. 

"He  set  me  to  read  the  best  passages  of  the  poets 
and  orators"  (Greek  and  Latin  of  course).  He  pointed 
out  to  the  eager  boy  the  special  beauties  of  these 
passages.  He  taught  him  how  to  read  aloud,  and  also 
the  art  of  translation.  Grammar  was  only  a  means, 
not  an  end.  In  fact,  Pierre  du  Fosse"  received  a  literary 
education.  A  good  many  boys  came  to  Les  Granges 


144  THE   "  SOLITAIRES  " 

after  the  war ;  among  them  was  M.  de  Villeneuve,  son 
of  M.  d'Andilly,  and  the  son  of  the  Dame  de  Fresle. 
There  seem  to  have  been  delightful  walks  and  expedi- 
tions into  the  country,  and  innocent  little  adventures, 
and  there  is  a  quaint  account  of  a  little  school  quite  near, 
where  a  few  boys  were  brought  up  on  Port  Royal 
principles.  Among  these  was  a  younger  brother  of  Du 
Foss£.  Unluckily  the  good  Abb6  who  directed  them 
could  not  manage  to  keep  his  expenses  in  agreement 
with  his  income,  and  the  school  was  broken  up.  M.  de 
Tillemont  was  Du  Fossa's  greatest  friend.  Sebastian  de 
Tillemont,  the  future  ecclesiastical  historian,  was  the  son 
of  M.  Le  Nain,  also  a  Maitre  des  Requetes,  himself 
a  holy  and  humble  man  of  heart,  the  father  of  three  sons  : 
the  historian,  another  who  became  Sub- Prior  at  the 
celebrated  Monastery  of  La  Trappe,  and  a  third  who 
became  a  lawyer. 

The  future  historian  was  only  ten  when  he  joined 
Les  Petites  Ecoles,  but  from  the  very  first  he  was  a 
prodigy,  one  of  those  grave,  sweet-tempered  children  to 
whom  study  is  play  and  play  work.  Nicole,  of  whom  we 
shall  say  something  by-and-bye,  was  his  tutor,  and  seems 
to  have  been  terrified  by  his  pupil's  precocity.  He  was 
always  a  holy  youth,  and  from  his  first  days  at  school 
a  friend  of  Pierre  du  Foss6,  his  senior  by  three  years. 
The  two  lived  together  for  some  time  after  the  disper- 
sion of  Les  Petites  Ecoles. 

M.  de  Tillemont's  ecclesiastical  history  is  really  a 
great  book.  Gibbon  himself  speaks  of  it  with  respect. 
His  life  was  extraordinarily  calm  and  laborious,  and 
excepting  that  he  was  obliged  to  leave  Port  Royal  finally 
in  1679,  he  was  not  inconvenienced  by  persecution. 
We  will  return  to  him. 

The  most  noted  of  all  the  "  Solitaires,"  next  to  M.  Le 
Maitre,  was  undoubtedly  M.  d'Andilly,  the  elder  brother 
of  Mere  Ang£lique,  who  came  to  Port  Royal  in  1646. 
He  became  the  patriarch  of  Port  Royal,  and  the  father 
of  all  the  society  which  was  collected  there. 

M.  d'Andilly  had  always  lived  in  the  great  world. 
He  has  left  us  Memoirs  of  the  first  part  of  his  life,  and 


M.  D'ANDILLY  145 

they  give  us  a  picture  of  a  good  man,  not  faultless  by 
any  means,  but  with  a  real  purpose  to  serve  God  and 
the  King. 

He  was  a  true  Arnauld,  passionately  attached  to  all 
his  family,  and  to  his  father-in-law  and  mother-in-law. 
His  eldest  son,  who  has  also  left  Memoirs,  indeed 
accuses  his  father  of  favouritism  in  his  family,  and  of 
having  much  preferred  his  second  son,  who  was  known 
afterwards  as  M.  de  Pomponne,  from  an  estate  inherited 
from  M.  d'Andilly's  wife,  the  daughter  of  M.  de  la 
Boderie,  who  had  at  one  time  been  Ambassador  at  the 
English  Court. 

M.  d'Andilly  was  brought  up  among  state  affairs, 
and  his  knowledge  of  them  was  considerable.  He  was 
always  upright  and  pure,  in  a  Court  where  such  virtues 
were  by  no  means  easy.  As  the  notice  prefixed  to  his 
Memoirs  says : — 

"He  was  pure  in  the  midst  of  the  Court,  uncor- 
ruptible among  many  opportunities  of  enriching  himself, 
immovable  amid  the  attractions  and  cares  of  the  world." 

No  doubt  the  friendship  with  St  Cryan  did  as  much 
for  d'Andilly  as  it  did  for  Angelique,  and  Agnes,  and 
Marie  Claire,  and  for  the  nephews,  Le  Maitre,  De  Saci, 
and  the  rest. 

In  his  Memoirs  he  tells  us  of  his  career,  and  how  that 
career  was  checked  by  the  ill-will  of  the  Constable  de 
Luines,  the  favourite  of  Louis  XIII.,  who  prevented  his 
obtaining  the  post  held  by  Isaac  Arnauld  d'Andilly, 
d'Andilly's  uncle,  who  was  Intendant  des  Finances.  (The 
son  of  the  Constable  became  Due  de  Luines,  and  was 
strongly  attached  to  Port  Royal.)  He  held  other  posts, 
and  was  much  about  "Monsieur"  (Louis  XIII. 's 
brother).  Then  came  a  rupture  with  Monsieur,  and  a 
short  retirement,  and  then  in  1634  he  obtained  the  post 
of  Intendant  de  r Arm^e" : 

D'Andilly  was  extremely  popular  ;  great  ladies  were 
very  fond  of  him ;  people  in  high  places  esteemed  him. 

1  This  involved  the  attending  to  the  feeding  and  transport  of  the  army 
despatched  by  Richelieu  to  the  Rhine. 

K 


146  THE  "SOLITAIRES" 

He  enjoyed  society,  and  he  knew  every  one  worth 
knowing.  Evidently,  however,  his  eldest  son  saw 
blemishes  and  spoke  plainly  enough  of  them. 

"  I  may  say  that  my  father  enjoyed  a  great  reputation 
in  society,  and  passed  for  an  extraordinary  man.  ...  He 
was  extremely  affectionate,  and  as  love  is  so  particularly 
enjoined  on  us  by  the  new  law,  he  let  himself  yield  to 
affections  which  no  shadow  of  impurity  ever  darkened. 
He  loved  his  friends  dearly :  but  it  might  be  said  that 
new  friendships  were  always  a  little  preferred  by  him  to 
old  ones." 

This  is  a  little  bit  spiteful.  As  one  reads  the  son's 
Memoirs  (after  a  military  career,  he  took  orders  and 
became  possessed  in  his  old  age  of  the  Abbey  of 
Chaumes)  one  can  see  that  the  eldest  son  of  M.  d'Andilly 
was  not  at  all  in  sympathy  with  his  father,  and  there 
were  bickerings,  as  is  not  uncommon,  on  the  subject  of 
money.  One  can  quite  see  both  points  of  view. 
M.  d'Andilly  was  at  least  careful  as  to  his  son's  educa- 
tion ;  the  Abbe  tells  us  how  grateful  he  is  to  his  father  for 
the  care  bestowed  on  himself  and  his  brothers.  They 
were  brought  up  by  St  Cyran's  nephew,  M.  de  Barcos, 
and  then  sent  to  College  at  Lisieux. 

It  does  not  seem  that  M.  d'Andilly  was  particularly 
tyrannical  towards  his  eldest  son.  He  allowed  him  to 
choose  his  profession  and  become  a  soldier;  and  like 
many  another  smart  young  officer,  the  young  man  found 
it  difficult  to  reconcile  his  own  and  his  father's  ideas  on 
expenditure. 

The  Abbe  tells  us  how  much  d'Andilly  disliked 
leaving  his  home,  and  the  pleasant  society  which  gathered 
round  him,  for  the  post  of  Intendant  de  r  Armde. 

"It  may  be  said  that  no  man  ever  passed  a  more 
enjoyable  or  happier  life  than  his.  He  had  a  circle  of 
reputable  relations  around  him,  and  there  was  little  need 
for  him  to  go  from  home  to  seek  pleasanter  society  else- 
where. He  saw  a  great  deal  of  his  friends,  and  liked 
pleasant  conversation  and  wit ;  and  chiefly  at  the  Hotel 
de  Rambouillet  (the  mere  name  recalls  the  wittiest  and 
most  refined  society  of  France),  he  enjoyed  such  intense 


THE  H6TEL  RAMBOUILLET          147 

and  pure  pleasures,  that  it  would  have  been  hard  for  him 
to  find  greater  happiness  in  whatever  rank  of  life  he 
might  have  been."1 

We  remember  that  it  was  in  company  with  Mile. 
D'Argennes,  daughter  of  Mme.  de  Rambouillet,  that 
M.  d'Andilly  paid  St  Cyran  the  visit  ordered  by 
Richelieu. 

These  few  words  call  up  to  us  a  picture  of  the  bright, 
witty,  refined  society  which  is  summed  up  for  us  in  those 
words,  the  "  Hotel  de  Rambouillet." 

The  Port  Royalists  never  had  much  tenderness  for 
or  appreciation  of  the  artistic  side  of  life,  and  M. 
d'Andilly  and  Racine  are  the  connecting  links  with  the 
world  of  literature,  wit,  poetry. 

It  would  take  us  too  far  afield  to  describe  the  Hotel 
Rambouillet,  but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that,  under  the 
noble  chatelaine,  for  the  first  time  in  French  society 
persons  of  wit,  of  learning,  of  original  talent,  found  them- 
selves admitted  on  an  equal  footing  with  nobles  and 
high-born  dames. 

On  every  one  who  read,  or  who  "  conversed  "  (a  fine 
art  at  that  epoch),  the  influence  of  the  Hotel  de  Ram- 
bouillet was  felt.  We  all  know  that  "preciosity"  was 
the  Nemesis  which  awaited  those  who  cared  overmuch 
for  the  peculiar  nicety  and  discrimination  of  language. 

Among  these  witty  and  refined  and  gay  people 
d'Andilly  lived,  and  was  loved,  respected,  and  a  little  bit 
laughed  at. 

Long  years  after  his  retreat  (1676),  Mme.  de  Sevigne 
writes :  "  Nous  faisions  la  guerre  au  bon  homme 
d'Andilly,  qu'il  avoit  plus  d'envie  d'une  ame  qui  6toit 
dans  un  beau  corps  qu'une  autre." 

It  was  M.  d'Andilly  who  persuaded  the  Princesse  de 
Guemenee  to  put  herself  under  St  Cyran's  direction. 
De  Retz  has  some  mocking  remarks  on  the  subject,  so 
far  as  the  Princess'  state  is  concerned,  but  even  he 
observes  that  d'Andilly 's  devotion  to  the  Princess  was 
"en  Dieu  et  purement  spirituellement."  But,  as 

1  Mtmoires  de  VAbbt  Arnauld. 


148  THE   "SOLITAIRES" 

d'Andilly  himself  tells  us,  the  loss  of  his  wife  led  him  to 
think  of  retiring  from  the  world,  and  St  Cyran's  death 
fully  determined  him. 

No  place  could  be  so  suitable  as  Port  Royal,  where 
already  were  his  son  and  his  nephew;  and  so  this 
"desert,"  as  he  calls  it,  was  his  chosen  hermitage. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  family  that  before  leaving 
the  world  M.  d'Andilly  had  a  short  controversy  with  a 
lawyer  of  Toulouse,  president  of  the  "Parlement"  of 
Toulouse,  who  had  in  a  book  recently  published 
maligned  dAndilly  as  "one  of  the  Cardinal's  creatures." 
D'Andilly  replied  by  publishing  a  volume  of  letters  to 
Richelieu.  Certainly,  whatever  were  his  faults,  sub- 
servience was  not  to  be  counted  one. 

And  so  having  made  all  his  preparations  he  arrived 
at  Port  Royal  and  established  himself  in  this  "demeure 
si  affreuse."  But  he  soon  changed  the  appearance  of 
things.  He  chose  for  manual  labour  to  work  as  a 
gardener,  to  plant  fruit-trees,  and  by  degrees  a  beautiful 
garden  with  fruit-bearing  trees  was  made.  D'Andilly 
regularly  divided  his  time  between  working  in  the  garden 
(he  also  drained  a  marsh),  prayer,  and  study.  He  gave 
to  the  little  society  of  Port  Royal  something  which  it 
lacked  before — something  of  grace,  kindness,  humanity. 
He  left  some  literary  work  behind  him,  a  translation  of 
Josephus,  and  a  collection  of  lives  of  the  first  hermits, 
entitled  Peres  des  Deserts,  translations  of  St  Augustine, 
St  Theresa,  and  others.  It  is  well  for  us  to  recall 
Sainte  Beuve's  decision  that  "  Litterairement,  M. 
d'Andilly  a  rendu  de  vrais  services  a  la  langue  .  .  .  il 
suffirait  de  rappeler  que  M.  de  Rochefoucault  lui 
envoyait  une  copie  de  ses  Memoires,  pour  obtenir  en 
lui  des  corrections,  particulierement  sur  la  purete  du 
style."  He  wrote  a  good  deal  of  poetry,  but  poetry 
which  it  is  not  likely  that  a  future  century  will  revive  or 
greatly  care  to  read. 

Fontaine  has  a  touching  passage  : — 

"  Oh  my  God,  with  what  joy  have  we  seen  this  holy 
old  saint's  retirement  to  Port  Royal,  which  was  really 
more  of  a  home  to  him  than  the  one  he  had  left.  Every 


THE  CHIEF  OF  THE   "SOLITAIRES"    149 

time  one  met  him,  the  first  affection  for  hirn  was^  always 
renewed.  He  was  so  steadfast,  he  never  failed  in  those 
first  resolutions.  It  might  be  said  of  him  :  *  What  went 
ye  out  for  to  see  ?  A  reed  shaken  with  the  wind  ? '  O 
God,  Thou  hast  set  him  upon  a  rock.  The  winds 
might  blow :  the  storms  and  tempests  rage  :  the  violence 
of  earthly  might,  which  nothing  could  resist,  was  able  to 
send  him  for  a  time  away  from  his  beloved  solitude,  but 
his  heart  was  always  there  and  Thy  powerful  Hand 
brought  him  back  in  spite  of  human  plots.  He  came  to 
finish  his  earthly  life,  dividing  his  hours  between  prayer 
and  Mass,  mental  and  bodily  work ;  devoting  himself  to 
his  work  of  translation,  and  to  the  care  of  the  garden 
and  the  trees.  He  often  said  he  had  compelled  nature 
to  be  abundant  in  fruits,  which  grew  to  a  prodigious  size. 
It  was  in  this  blessed  repose  and  in  quiet  occupations 
that  he  ended  his  career.  Never  was  any  emblem  or 
device  more  suitable  than  that  which  was  placed  beneath 
his  portrait — a  swan  quietly  sailing  on  the  water  singing 
her  dying  song,  and  the  motto,  'Quam  dulci  senex 
quiete." 

Du  Fosse*  says  :  "He  held  various  appointments  at 
Court  and  in  the  Department  of  Finance.  Always  his 
hands  were  clean  and  his  mind  devoid  of  any  self- 
interest.  When  he  left  his  various  employments  he  was, 
if  anything,  rather  poorer  than  when  he  began." 

M.  Le  Maitre  is  the  chief  of  these  "  Solitaires."  His 
life  was  divided  between  prayer,  manual  labour  and  study. 
He  learned  Hebrew  during  his  retirement,  in  order  that 
he  might  be  able  to  translate  the  Psalms.  He  worked 
at  the  Fathers,  and  translated  extracts  from  them ; 
he  worked  eagerly,  almost  furiously,  at  manual  labour. 
Fontaine  has  told  us  how  difficult  a  struggle  it  was  for 
Le  Maitre  to  overcome  the  strong  repugnance  which  he 
felt  (perhaps  not  unnaturally)  to  placing  himself  under 
his  younger  brother  De  Saci's  direction.  It  arose  on 
this  wise : — 

M.  Singlin,  after  St  Cyran's  death,  was  completely 
over-burdened  with  the  cares  which  had  fallen  upon  him. 
Very  soon  after  that  irreparable  loss,  he  fixed  his 
attention  on  a  certain  M.  Manguelen,  who  like  most  of 
the  later  converts  had  been  attracted  by  Antoine 


150  THE   "SOLITAIRES" 

Arnauld's  La  Frequente  Communion.  Manguelen  had 
retired  to  Port  Royal,  but  left  it  in  a  few  months  to 
accompany  the  Bishop  of  Bazas  back  to  his  diocese. 
M.  De  Bazas  had  made  a  Retreat  at  Port  Royal  which 
he  would  willingly  have  made  lifelong*,  but  M.  Singlin 
induced  him  to  return  to  his  diocese,  and  sent  with  him, 
at  his  own  request,  M.  Manguelen.  About  a  year  after- 
wards the  Bishop  died,  and  M.  Manguelen  returned  to 
Port  Royal.  To  his  surprise  and  somewhat  to  his 
dismay,  M.  Singlin  proposed  to  him  to  take  the  direction 
of  "  Messieurs  de  Port  Royal." 

Fontaine  has  given  us  a  charming  description  : — 

"  M.  Manguelen  listened  to  this  with  his  usual 
gentleness,  and  as  he  could  not  resist  M.  Singlin's 
proposition,  he  submitted  to  a  yoke  the  weight  of  which 
M.  Singlin  promised  to  bear  the  greater  part,  which 
weight  he  already  diminished  by  the  support  of  his 
counsels.  M.  Singlin  left  all  his  other  occupations  in 
order  to  take  M.  Manguelen  to  Port  Royal."  No 
sooner  had  they  arrived,  than  M.  Singlin  (to  cut 
Fontaine  a  little  short)  told  M.  Le  Maltre  of  the 
necessity  there  was  for  another  confessor,  and  that 
every  one  of  the  "Solitaires"  might  absolutely  trust 
M.  Manguelen.  And  he  then  suggested  that  M.  Le 
Maitre  and  all  the  "  Solitaires"  should  go  to  M. 
Manguelen's  room  and  pay  him  their  respects. 

Accordingly,  the  next  day  after  Matins  all  the 
" Solitaires"  followed  M.  Le  Maitre  to  M.  Manguelen's 
room,  M.  de  S^ricourt,  M.  Luzanci,  M.  de  Beaupuis, 
M.  Bascle,  M.  Visaguet,  M.  Moreau,  M.  de  la  Riviere, 
M.  Pallu,  and  several  others.  "And  I  too,"  says 
Fontaine,  "  I  was  there  like  a  sheep  following  the  rest, 
and  hardly  comprehending  what  it  was ^ all  about;  .  .  . 
However,  in  spite  of  my  youth,  this  affair  made  a  great 
impression  on  me,  for  I  have  never  forgotten  that  day, 
and  although  it  all  happened  more  than  fifty  years  ago, 
it  is  as  vivid  as  if  it  were  only  yesterday.  It  is  true, 
that  in  the  silence  of  the  night,  I  much  enjoyed  hearing 
M.  Le.  Maitre's  utterance  of  beautiful  thoughts  as 
representing  us  all.  Certainly  no  other  person  of  the 
society  could  have  said  anything  comparable  to  it.  I 
still  remember,  how  he  said  to  M.  Manguelen  .  .  .  that 
we  had  come  to  throw  ourselves  into  his  arms,  etc.  .  .  . 


THE  BROTHERS  SERICOURT         151 

and  concluded  by  owning  his  own  grief  at  the  weakness 
he  would  find  in  us,  but  it  was  to  be  hoped  his  charity 
would  cover  all  our  faults,  and  that  our  goodwill,  slight 
as  it  was,  would  help  him  to  excuse  the  rest." 

"  M.  Manguelen  heard  us  very  calmly  ;  coldness  was 
his  peculiar  inheritance,  and  was  natural  to  him.  He 
answered  M.  Le  Maitre  and  looked  at  us,  and  seemed 
more  intent  on  seeing  us  than  on  speaking  to  us.  He 
got  out  a  few  words  with  difficulty  in  so  low  a  tone  that 
we  could  hardly  hear."  [Probably  poor  M.  Manguelen 
was  extremely  shy  rather  than  cold.]  "  He  said  God 
and  M.  Singlin  knew  how  unequal  he  was  to  the  task 
laid  on  him  ;  he  had  done  all  he  could  to  evade  it,  and 
would  we  all  not  take  offence  at  weaknesses  which  his 
frail  health  might  cause  him  to  betray.  At  these  words 
we  all  threw  ourselves  at  his  feet  to  receive  his  blessing, 
and  we  went  away." 

M.  Manguelen  died  very  shortly  afterwards  (1646), 
and  M.  Singlin,  who  did  not  arrive  in  time  to  see  him 
alive,  was  overwhelmed  with  grief.  Two  years  later,  De 
Saci  was  ordained  Priest,  and  became  the  spiritual  guide 
of  Port  Royal  des  Champs. 

We  have  been  anticipating  the  history  somewhat. 

Returning  to  the  first  "  Solitaires  " — we  have  already 
noticed  M.  de  Sericourt,  the  soldier  who  lived  on  terms 
of  the  deepest  affection  with  his  elder  brother — Fontaine 
tells  us  in  simple  and  beautiful  language  how  M.  de 
Sericourt  became  possessed  with  the  idea  that  he  ought 
to  enter  the  Carthusian  order ;  this  was  a  blow  to  the 
elder  brother,  who,  however,  replied  as  follows  to  De 
Sericourt's  confession  (the  whole  conversation  is  so 
characteristic  of  Fontaine's  naive  and  childlike  style, 
that  we  will  transcribe  it) : — 

" '  My  brother,'  said  he  (M.  Le  Maitre)  to  M.  de 
S6ricourt  .  .  .  *  God  is  our  Master.  If  He  calls  you  to 
the  Chartreuse,  you  must  not  draw  back.  You  can 
guess  if  nature  does  not  rebel  in  me.  .  .  . '  'I  love  you,' 
replied  M.  de  Sericourt.  *  I  always  feel  you  were  the 
instrument  which  God  used  to  draw  me  from  the  world, 
and  my  conversion  was  the  result  of  yours.  .  .  .  If  it 
seems  that  God  wills  to  separate  me  from  you,  I  will 


152  THE   "SOLITAIBES" 

follow  Him  without  resistance.  What  I  beg  and 
entreat  you,  dear  brother,  by  that  tender  affection  you 
have  always  shown  me,  is  that  now  in  this  important 
time  you  will  add  your  prayers  to  mine  that  God  would 
teach  me  to  know  His  will."1 

But  this  design  of  De  Sericourt  came  to  nothing. 
On  the  pretext  of  some  delicacy  of  health,  the  head  of 
the  order  declined  to  receive  him.  "  Messieurs  de  Port 
Royal "  were  already  not  in  good  odour.  De  Sericourt 
remained  at  Port  Royal  until  his  death. 

A  young  son  of  M.  d'Andilly,  M.  de  Luzanci,  joined 
his  cousins.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  charming  youth, 
with  a  keen  sense  of  the  attractions  of  the  great  world. 
A  rather  delicate  boy  with  little  taste  for  study,  he  had 
entered  Cardinal  Richelieu's  service  as  one  of  his  pages. 
But  a  sister  of  his,  Catherine  de  St  Agnes,  had  already 
entered  religion  at  Port  Royal,  and  the  boy  seems  to 
have  been  taught  by  her  to  feel  a  deep  horror  of  sin. 
Then  came  a  great  temptation.  He  promised  to  be 
a  friend's  second  in  a  duel,  and  this  was  only  prevented 
by  the  Cardinal's  forbidding  it,  for  Richelieu  did  his  best 
to  put  down  duels.  Luzanci  felt  great  remorse,  and  a 
bad  illness  strengthened  an  already  half-formed  resolu- 
tion to  forsake  the  world.  Still  he  felt  he  must  see  some 
service  first,  and  managed  to  do  so.  An  attack  of 
smallpox  finally  determined  him.  After  his  recovery 
he  stayed  for  some  time  with  St  Cyran's  great  friend, 
Madame  de  Saint  Ange,  and  placed  himself  under  the 
direction  of  the  Abbe,  then  a  prisoner  at  Vincennes. 
After  some  time  he  joined  his  cousins  at  Port  Royal, 
and  there  all  his  excellent  qualities  and  winning 
character  developed  into  very  real  saintliness.  He  had 
a  peculiar  grace  of  tenderness  ;  he  was  tender  to  the  poor 
and  sick,  and  was  much  loved  by  the  servants  of  Port 
Royal.  For  forty  years  yet  we  shall  find  him,  not 
always  at  Port  Royal,  but  always  living  the  life  of 
prayer  and  of  penitence.  He  did  not  die  until  1684. 
To  these  were  now  added  several  more. 

1  Fontaine ',  vol.  ii.,  pp.  195-196. 


VICTOR  PALLU  153 

M.  Victor  Pallu,  the  owner  of  a  small  property  near 
Tours  and  a  doctor  of  medicine,  had  been  drawn  to  holy 
things,  as  so  many  are,  by  the  sight  of  death.  He  had 
been  attached  as  physician  to  the  Comte  de  Soissons 
and  had  been  much  impressed  by  the  death  of  his 
patron  on  the  field  of  battle.  Restless  and  uneasy,  he 
consulted  a  near  relation,  the  Bishop  of  Marseilles,  who, 
however,  died  very  soon ;  and  then  M.  Pallu  found  in 
M.  de  St  Cyran  all  that  he  needed.  Arnauld's  famous 
book,  which  was  in  all  the  first  flush  of  success,  fell  into 
his  hands  while  he  was  staying  at  Forges,  a  health 
resort  at  that  time  much  in  vogue.  He  saw  St  Cyran 
again,  and  retired  to  Port  Royal  for  a  rest,  as  he  thought 
for  a  few  days,  but  in  reality  for  a  lifelong  sojourn. 

He  was  a  tiny  little  person,  full  of  good  humour,  good 
taste,  and  kindness.  It  was  almost  a  pleasure  to  be  ill, 
said  Fontaine,  in  order  that  one  might  have  a  talk  with 
M.  Pallu. 

The  little  doctor  was  only  thirty-seven  when  he  left 
the  world  for  Port  Royal.  To  the  " Solitaires"  he 
brought  something  of  the  bonhomie  and  savoir  vivre 
of  a  vivacious  Frenchman.  He  was  one  of  those  who 
serve  God  cheerfully,  underneath  whose  cheerful  exterior 
lay  a  depth  of  religious  freedom  and  of  charity.  In  a 
letter  quoted  by  M.  de  Sainte  Beuve  he  wrote  : — 

"  I  declare  to  you  that  it  almost  makes  me  suspect 
my  ordinary  course  of  life — to  pass  it  so  happily ;  only 
innocent  people  should  enjoy  such  a  life  fearlessly  ; 
a  sinner  such  as  I  am  ought  to  fear  this  silence  of  God 
...  As  I  have  misused  lawful  things  I  must  voluntarily 
bear  privation  of  them.  Those  who  owe  much  are 
obliged  to  inconvenience  themselves  in  order  to  dis- 
charge the  debt." 

It  is  diverting  to  find  a  countryman  of  our  own,  "un 
gentilhomme  anglais,"  among  the  "  Solitaires,"  a  typical 
Briton,  tall  and  fierce-looking,  but  very  gentle  in  reality, 
and  an  excellent  cook.  "He  offered  himself  most 
willingly  to  the  work  of  cooking,  and  it  might  be  said 
of  him  as  of  St  Paulin,  that  in  a  wholly  carnal  occupa- 
tion he  did  not  cease  to  be  spiritual." 


154  THE   "SOLITAIKES" 

And  there  was  Charles  de  la  Croix,  who  had  been 
sent,  as  we  said,  by  St  Cyran  from  Vincennes,  and  who 
died  in  1643 — one  of  those  simple,  fervent  souls  who 
are  taught  by  God  only,  and  serve  Him  with  the 
labours  of  their  hands.  He  was  only  twenty-six  when 
he  died,  having  acted  as  servant  to  the  "  Solitaires." 
Although,  says  one  of  the  chroniclers  of  Port  Royal, 
he  was  ignorant,  it  was  noticed  that  he  was  also  full 
of  spiritual  enlightenment,  and  he  grasped  very  quickly 
the  deep  truths  of  the  Faith  and  of  Holy  Scripture. 
Lancelot  watched  over  him  in  his  last  moments,  and 
tells  us  how  the  dying  youth  longed  to  be  laid  on  the 
plank  bed  on  which  he  generally  slept,  in  passionate 
desire  to  be  more  like  the  Lord,  whose  Image  hung 
before  his  eyes.  Good,  tender-hearted  little  M.  Pallu 
would  not  hear  of  this — M.  Le  Maitre  would  willingly 
have  complied. 

Amongst  the  younger  "Solitaires"  was  a  M. 
Lindo,  son  of  a  rich  Paris  tradesman,  who  lived  a  year 
at  Port  Royal  loved  by  everyone,  loved  very  much 
by  Manguelen,  a  simple,  open-hearted  boy.  Fontaine 
gives  us  a  charming  picture  of  him  which  one  cannot 
resist  quoting : — 

"  I  think,  if  I  remember  rightly,  that  he  had  been 
a  Carthusian ;  but  his  delicate  health  was  not  able  to 
bear  the  rule.  M.  Singlin  sent  him  to  M.  Manguelen, 
who,  after  having  shaped  him  for  a  year,  gave  him 
back  to  God,  who  called  him  by  a  gentle  death,  caused 
by  great  summer  heat.  M.  Manguelen  sent  in  front 
of  him  this  dear  son,  the  fruit  of  his  love  and  his 
watchfulness,  whom  he  was,  alas !  to  follow  very  soon. 
We  felt  this  death  to  be  a  very  great  loss.  Everyone 
declared  that  because  of  his  innocence  he  was  the  best 
of  those  who  lived  in  this  desert.  But  God  comforted 
us  in  the  same  moment  as  He  afflicted  us ;  while  He 
took  from  us  our  very  best,  He  received  from  our  hands 
the  first-fruits  of  this  desert.  He  was  a  beautiful  inno- 
cent in  a  place  where  there  were  beautiful  penitents." 

Perhaps  one  may  now  speak  of  the  sort  of  life  which 
the  "Solitaires "lived. 


DAILY  LIFE  OF  THE  "SOLITAIRES"     155 

At  3  A.M.  they  rose,  and  said  certain  prescribed 
prayers ;  then  came  Matins  and  Lauds,  and  they 
returned  to  their  rooms.  There  was  a  daily  reading  of 
a  chapter  from  the  Gospel  and  of  one  from  the  Epistles, 
and  meditation.  At  6.30  came  Prime,  at  9  Terce  and 
Mass,  and  at  1 1  Sext  and  self-examination.  Then 
came  dinner  and  a  rest,  and  manual  work ;  Nones, 
Vespers  in  the  afternoon,  and  supper  at  6.  At  7  or 
thereabouts  was  said  Compline,  then  a  prayer  for  the 
dead,  Psalm  li.,  self-examination,  and  at  8  the  day 
ended.  Four  hours  were  devoted  to  manual  labour. 

In  regard  to  austerity,  the  rule  was  sufficiently 
stern.  Abstinence  from  meat  could  not  be  observed, 
but  as  a  compensation,  there  was  only  one  meal  and 
a  light  refection  every  day,  and  meals  of  bread  and 
water  were  plentiful.  The  beds  were  hard ;  the  use  of 
the  discipline  and  of  the  hair  shirt  was  frequent. 
Confession  and  Communion  were  more  or  less  frequent 
in  different  individuals,  fortnightly,  weekly,  or  even 
more  often. 

It  is  a  beautiful  picture  which  Fontaine  gives,  on 
which  one  loves  to  linger.  This  little  group  so  given 
up  to  plain  living,  to  high  thinking,  has  around  it  a 
peculiar  aroma  of  refined,  delicate,  reticent  devotion. 
But  they  were  to  be  further  tried  and  purified  before 
God  found  them  worthy  for  Himself. 

In  every  age  the  world,  especially  the  officially 
religious  world,  hates  with  an  extraordinary  fervour 
those  who  show  it  with  brutal  frankness  that  its 
pleasures,  rewards,  penalties,  are  nothing  in  comparison 
to  that  Vision  of  God  which  once  seen  can  never  be 
forgotten — 

"A  quella  luce  cotal  si  diventa 
Che  volgersi  da  lei  per  altro  aspetto 
£  impossibile  che  mai  si  consenta," l 

says  the  greatest  of  Christian  poets,  a  soul  as  different 
from  any  Port  Royalist  as  could  well  be  found,  and  yet 
stamped  with  that  likeness  which  the  School  of  the 

1  Paradiso^  xxxiil,  100. 


156  THE   "SOLITAIRES" 

Cross  imprints  on  all  who  learn  in  that  school,  who 
tread  the  "Via  Dolorosa." 

There  seems  to  be  very  little  reason  why  the  band 
of  "Solitaires"  should  have  excited  suspicion.  But  it 
did.  Slanderous  tongues  were  swift  to  speak  words 
that  might  do  hurt,  even  as  early  as  1644.  "They 
were  a  band  of  conspirators,  of  would-be  reformers." 
And  Anne  of  Austria  lent  her  ear  to  these  idle  tales. 
As  yet,  however,  no  persecution  had  fallen  to  them  or  on 
Port  Royal. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  PORT  ROYAL  DES  CHAMPS  (1635-1648) 

WHILE  Port  Royal  is  still  left  in  comparative  peace  we 
will  try  to  gain  some  idea  of  the  inner  life  which  Mere 
Angelique  influenced  and  indeed  dominated,  and  which 
produced  such  remarkable  results.  As  we  saw,  in 
1637  the  religious  who  belonged  to  the  short-lived 
Institut  du  Saint  Sacrement  were  translated  to  Port 
Royal. 

This  brought  about  a  change  of  habit.  The  Port 
Royal  nuns  had  hitherto  worn  the  black  scapulars 
common  to  their  order,  but  now  they  were  uniting 
themselves  with  the  Institut  du  Saint  Sacrement.  Mere 
Angelique  says  :  "  I  thought  it  would  be  better  to  change 
nothing,  but  Anne  Eugenie  thought  otherwise.  One 
day  during  this  time  of  indecision,  while  a  tidying-up 
was  going  on,  a  box  which  had  been  sent  over  from 
the  Institut  du  Saint  Sacrement  was  discovered ;  it  had 
been  unopened  for  eight  or  nine  years,  and  was  full  of 
the  white  scapulars  with  the  red  cross  which  the 
Sisters  of  the  Saint  Sacrement  had  packed  up  after 
their  return  to  Port  Royal."  Anne  Eugenie  persuaded 
Mere  Angelique  to  adopt  them,  and,  as  Angelique  says, 
the  scarlet  cross  on  the  white  scapular  no  doubt  reminded 
those  who  wore  it  of  the  Apocalyptic  Vision  of  St  John, 
of  those  who  had  washed  their  garments  and  made 
them  white  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb. 

About  this  time  Genevieve  le  Tardif,  who  was  the 
first  elected  Abbess,  died.  After  the  nuns  of  the 
Institut  were  incorporated  into  Port  Royal,  Mere 

157 


158    THE  POET  EOYAL  DES  CHAMPS 

G6n£vieve  had  lived  the  holy,  blameless  life  of  a  simple 
nun,  content  to  be  servant  of  all.  A  touching  account 
is  given  of  her  in  Vies  Edifiantes  et  Intdressantes. 
Through  an  accident  she  became  totally  blind,  and 
suffered  very  much.  Angelique  de  St  Jean  (the  second 
Mere  Angelique)  says,  in  describing  her  death  : — 

"  I  do  not  know  if  I  ought  to  speak  about  something 
which  happened  at  her  death.  The  whole  Community 
was  present  when  she  expired,  and  as  usual  we  sang  the 
Subvenite,  but  what  seemed  to  us  so  extraordinary  was 
that  other  voices  seemed  to  mingle  and  to  produce  a 
harmony  which  seemed  supernatural.  Was  it  wholly 
imagination?  for  we  had  complete  security  that  the 
angels  were  rejoicing,  and  the  feeling  we  had  in  our 
hearts  was  true." 

After  the  influence  of  the  Bishop  of  Langres  had 
been  withdrawn,  Port  Royal  had  suffered  little  direct 
persecution.  The  greatest  trial  as  yet  known  to  the 
inmates  was  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  their  much- 
loved  director  St  Cyran.  And  since  his  release,  life  had 
been  tolerably  smooth.  Mere  Angelique  was  inspired 
with  the  wish  to  return  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  the 
true  Port  Royal,  the  Port  Royal  which,  as  St  Cyran 
had  told  her,  she  ought  never  to  have  left !  In  1650  she 
writes  to  the  Abbess  of  Gif,  who  had  consulted  her  as 
to  the  pros  and  cons  of  moving  her  Community  to 
Paris  :— 

"  My  dear  Mother,  in  obedience  to  your  wish,  I  will 
answer  ^you  quite  simply,  as  to  your  proposal  to  remove 
to  Paris.  I  think  I  was  persuaded  to  make  my  ex- 
change by  much  the  same  reasons  as  those  you  now 
bring  forward,  and  I  think  now  I  was  wrong,  although 
I  had  no  hesitation  then.  But  I  see  now  that  I  did  not 
ask  counsel  from  God  as  much  as  I  did  from  men,  and 
that  my  secret  inclinations  led  me  astray  and  made  me 
unworthy  of  ^being  enlightened  by  God  and  prevented 
from  entangling  myself  in  embarrassment  which  nearly 
ruined  us ;  only  God  helped  us  in  wholly  unexpected 
and  wonderful  ways/'1 

1  Lettres  de  la  Mere  Ang^lique^  vol.  i.,  letter  cccx. 


RETURN  TO  PORT  ROYAL  DES  CHAMPS    159 

St  Cyran  himself  had  blamed  the  Mother  for  leaving 
Port  Royal  des  Champs,  and  from  his  prison  had 
advised  her  not  to  allow  the  buildings  to  fall  into  ruin. 

"God  acts  with  communities  and  monasteries  which 
He  loves,  just  as  he  does  with  persons  whom  He  loves, 
who  are  of  His  elect.  He  ruins  them  to  prevent  the 
only  true  ruin,  that  is  of  the  soul,  that  ruin  which $  they 
would  cause  themselves  through  relaxation  of  discipline 
if  they  went  on  longer.  The  spirit  of  poverty  in  a 
monastery  which  has  been  transferred  to  a  town  would 
naturally  oppose  as  much  as  possible  the  ruin  of  the 
building  which  was  left,  in  the  ^  hope  that  God,  who 
with  His  angels  still  inhabits  this  ruined  church,  may 
some  day  bring  religious  back  to  it.  So  to  take  care 
of  > the  dormitory  with  this  hope  is  a  real  evidence  of  the 
spirit  of  poverty." 

The  house  in  Paris  was  now  too  small  for  the 
Community,  which  seemed  an  excellent  reason  for 
sending  some  of  the  inmates  back  again. 

After  some  delays,  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  gave  his 
consent,  and  Angelique  was  allowed  to  remove  some  of 
her  nuns  on  condition  that  the  Community  in  the 
country  should  be  under  the  authority  of  the  same 
Ordinary  and  Abbess  as  was  the  Paris  Community. 
Angelique  made  an  expedition  to  Port  Royal  in  1646. 
Twenty  years  had  passed  away  since  she  had  left  it, 
and  she  had  become  an  elderly  woman  tried  by  many 
sad  experiences,  and  raised  to  a  spiritual  height  of  self- 
abnegation,  of  lofty  moral  ideals,  of  complete  and  utter 
unworldliness.  She  was  the  same  Mere  Angelique  who 
had  reformed  Port  Royal  and  cleansed  Maubuisson, 
but  the  experiences  of  Paris  and  above  all  the  direction 
of  St  Cyran  and  Singlin  had  ripened  the  fruits  of  holi- 
ness, and  she  was  now  a  very  remarkable  woman ;  her 
letters  and  conversations  show  extraordinary  spiritual 
insight  and  humility.  There  was  yet  a  further  height 
to  climb  before  she  reached  her  Calvary;  the  last 
Beatitude  was  yet  to  be  hers. 

The  aspect  of  Port  Royal  was  a  good  deal  changed 
in  the  twenty  years.  "  Les  Messieurs  de  Port  Royal," 


160    THE  POET  EOYAL  DES  CHAMPS 

the  Solitaires,  had  drained  the  marshes  and  had  planted 
fruit-trees. 

It  was  great  joy  to  the  Mother  to  meet  these 
Solitaires  and  to  see  with  her  own  eyes  the  wonderful 
lives  of  prayer  and  of  work  and  of  detachment  led  by  the 
little  company. 

She  made  more  than  one  journey  to  Port  Royal, 
before  she  was  able  to  arrange  her  final  departure  from 
Paris,  which  took  place  on  the  isth  of  May  1648. 
Great  was  the  joy  of  the  peasants  of  the  neighbourhood 
at  the  arrival  of  the  little  company  of  seven  Choir 
(including  the  Mother)  and  two  Lay  Sisters.  A 
number  of  people  were  collected  in  the  courtyard  to 
welcome  Mere  Angelique,  and  at  the  door  of  the 
church  were  the  Solitaires,  who  followed  the  nuns 
inside  and  sang  a  Te  Deum.  Two  or  three  days  were 
occupied  in  settling  down.  On  the  Sunday  following 
their  arrival  the  Divine  Offices  were  said,  and  the 
habitual  round  of  prayer  and  work  began. 

A  little  book  entitled  Les  Constitutions  de  Port 
Royal  contains  the  rules  for  the  guidance  of  the  Sisters, 
printed  after  the  destruction  of  the  Monastery,  but 
dating  from  1648.  It  is  a  touching  little  volume.  The 
rules  do  not  differ  very  much  from  those  of  other 
religious  Communities ;  there  is  a  striking  absence  of 
anything  exaggerated  or  fantastic.  There  breathes  in 
them  the  lofty,  austere,  yet  tender  spirit  inspired  by  St 
Cyran.  It  was  a  bracing  atmosphere  in  which  Port 
Royal  nuns  moved. 

There  is  a  characteristic  word  on  confession  : — 

"  It  is  better  to  go  to  confession  less  often  when  we 
can  make  our  confession  with  more  reverence  and  care 
...  the  Sacrament  [of  Penance]  is  often  useless  to 
those  who  are  not  as  careful  to  mortify  >  and  to  correct 
themselves  as  they  are  to  use  confession." 

What  has  been  called  a  mechanical  use  of  sacra- 
ments was  alien  to  Port  Royal.  All  through  the  rules 
there  breathes  the  same  idea  of  poverty  which  we 
know  inspired  Mere  Angelique;  everything  was  to  be 


DISLIKE  OF  FALSE  DEVOTION        161 

simple.    There  is  a  curious  little  direction  about  incense  : 
"  Only  moderately  good  incense  to  be  used." 

One  of  the  charges  brought  against  Port  Royal  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  infrequency  of  Communion.  Here  is 
a  quotation  from  the  Constitutions.  It  is  found  in  a 
meditation  on  the  "  profession  of  a  Novice." 

"This  Institut  gives  us  the  right  of  aspiring  to  very 
frequent  Communion,  for  the  children  of  the  Bridegroom 
cannot  fast  while  He  is  with  them,  and  that  Spiritual 
Communion  which  we  ought  incessantly  to  practise, 
and  which  causes  us  to  rest  our  hearts  on  our  most 
precious  gift,  the  Eucharist  itself,  should  lead  us  to  the 
Holy  Communion  as  often  as  our  rule  permits,  ever 
hungering  and  thirsting  for  it." 

United  with  the  deepest  devotion,  or  rather  perhaps 
because  this  devotion  was  so  deep  and  true,  there 
existed  a  spirit  of  strong,  sanctified  common  sense. 
The  Gift  of  Wisdom  seems  to  have  been  fully  poured 
out  on  Mere  Angelique. 

One  of  the  Sisters  says  (in  the  Mdmoires  pour 
Servir):  "God  had  given  her  a  singular  grace  which 
enabled  her  to  touch  the  hardest  hearts  and  encourage 
the  most  despondent  spirits."  And  the  same  Sister 
says,  that  however  much  awe  and  respect  the  Com- 
munity might  feel  for  Angelique,  yet  "we  felt  a  peculiar 
freedom  of  mind  and  a  great  openness  of  heart  when 
we  talked  to  her." 

The  Mother  had  a  great  dislike  of  what  she  called 
false  devotion  ;  she  much  preferred,  for  instance,  that  if  a 
Sister  had  finished  a  particular  bit  of  work  in  good  time 
she  should  use  the  extra  moments  of  leisure  in  helping  a 
more  tardy  companion  rather  than  indulging  a  love  for 
extra  prayer. 

Mere  Angelique's  maxim  was  to  put  things  from  the 
beginning  on  a  high  level,  "every  thought,  every  desire, 
should  only  bring  about  in  her  Monastery  absolute 
perfection  of  poverty,  simplicity,  separation  from  the 
world,  silence  among  the  Sisters." 

The  same  Sister  says  she  well  remembers  the  Mother 

L 


162    THE  POET  KOYAL  DES  CHAMPS 

saying  to  her  :  "  You  wept  when  you  said  Good-bye  to 
Mere  Agnes.  .  .  .  Never  mind,  my  child  .  .  .  only  keep 
in  your  mind  and  meditate  on  the  words,  '  Ye  are  dead, 
and  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God/  and  you  must 
not  set  your  heart  on  any  created  thing."  The  Sister 
often  pondered  over  this  conversation,  and  when,  only 
three  or  four  years  afterwards,  the  persecution  broke  out 
.  .  .  "and  those  most  precious,  most  necessary  people 
were  taken  from  us,  I  remembered  these  words,  and  had 
no  difficulty  in  understanding  their  meaning." 

Another  nun,  Dorothee  Perdreau,  gives  a  touching 
little  story  of  her  brother,  and  how  Mere  Angelique  sent 
him  sufficient  money  for  the  purchase  of  some  post  which 
he  wished  to  obtain  in  order  to  marry.  Poor  Dorothee 
added,  "He  died  eighteen  months  afterwards,  through  a 
strange  accident,  and  left  no  children.  All  his  estate 
was  lost  and  his  appointment,  for  which  no  compensa- 
tion was  made."  She  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  kindness 
and  courtesy  with  which  her  brother  was  received  at 
Port  Royal  when  he  paid  her  a  visit,  how  M.  dAndilly 
"put  him  up "  and  looked  after  him. 

"He  went  away  overjoyed  with  satisfaction  at  the 
kindness  with  which  he  had  been  treated,  and  he  used  to 
say,  '  Sister,  which  of  us  is  the  more  indebted  to  Port 
Royal?  we  owe  to  it  all  our  peace  and  happiness."' 
Mere  Angelique  absolutely  forbade  Dorothee  to  say  any- 
thing about  money  matters  to  her  brother. 

Another  Sister  says  :  "  She  could  not  endure  specu- 
lative questionings  on  the  mysteries  of  the  faith.  She 
said  it  was  to  some  extent  lowering  God's  work,  if  we 
wished  to  argue  and  discuss  matters  so  far  above  the 
measure  of  our  reason,  and  that  we  must  limit  our 
curiosity  by  what  the  Gospels  told  us  :  God  had  a  reason 
for  not  willing  to  let  man  be  told,  and  it  was  for  us  to 
adore  these  mysteries  in  silence  with  a  deep  awe,  for 
there  is  more  disproportion  between  God  and  us  than 
between  the  most  learned  man  on  earth  and  a  fly. 
She  preferred  us  to  speak  at  Conferences  concerning 
salvation,  for  example ;  the  needful  conduct  for  becoming 
a  good  religious,  for  becoming  very  humble,  very  silent, 


M&RE  ANGELIQUE'S  WISE  COUNSEL    163 

very  prompt  in  one's  duty.     She  recommended  a  faith- 
fulness in  the  smallest  things,   and  she  said  there  is 
nothing  small  in  Religion,  because  all  is  done  for  God." 
Here  are  some  words  on  sadness  : — 

"  Let  us  beware  of  falling  into  discouragement  and 
sadness.  We  must  never  think  that  the  sorrow  which 
we  ought  to  have  for  our  faults  should  serve  as  a  motive 
for  falling  into  despair ;  ^on  the  contrary,  that  godly 
sorrow  ever  preserves  joy  in  the  depth  of  the  heart,  and 
that  joy  gives  us  peace.  It  never  causes  uneasiness  or 
anxiety — so  be  brave,  let  us  forget  the  past,  and  begin 
afresh  to  do  well." 

One  Sister  tells  us  that  when  she  was  much  distressed 
because  she  was  unable  to  practise  austerities,  Mere 
Angelique  said  to  her  : 

"  My  child,  it  is  self-love  which  makes  you  unhappy 
about  this.  Don't  you^know  that  there  is  no  better 
penance  than  that  which  God  Himself  lays  on  us. 
We  must  learn  to  bear  our  cross  in  the  way  that 
God  wills,  and  to  bear  it  joyfully  without  vexation  or 
distress,  but  in  the  fullness ^  of  our  heart ;  and  our 
weakness  will  be  as  pleasing  to  God  as  are  the 
austerities  of  our  Sisters,  possibly  even  more  because 
there  is  less  self-love.  For  it  is  self-deceit  to  wish  to  do 
what  we  cannot  do,  wrhen  we  neglect  what  we  can  do 
with  the  help  of  God's  grace. 

"If  you  are  more  feeble  than  other  people,  be  also 
more  humble.  If  your  weakness  compels  you  to  take 
more  care  of  yourself  and  to  treat  yourself  with  more 
indulgence  than  do  the  others,  humiliate  yourself  in 
obedience  to  that  rule  which  is  more  necessary  than 
any. 

"Above  all,  be  heedful  to  receive  every  kindness 
done  you,  not  as  things  which  are  your  dues,  but  as  a 
poor  person  receives  charity  with  much  gratitude. 

'  Try  to  make  up  for  not  keeping  the  rule  in  all  its 
exactness,  by  your  humility,  your  silence,  and  your 
'recollection." 

To  another  Sister  who  was  telling  the  Mother  of 
spiritual  trials,  Mere  Angelique  said  : — 

"All  these  things  are  mountains  of  difficulty,  which 
only  the  power  of  grace  can  throw  into  the  sea." 


164    THE  PORT  ROYAL  DES   CHAMPS 

To  another,  who  disliked  changing  her  con- 
fessor : — 

".  .  .  We  should  on  the  contrary  have  regard  only 
to  the  true  Priest,  Jesus  Christ,  whom  we  have  offended, 
who  sees  our  faults  and  who  only  requires  in  order  to 
forgive  us  for  them,  a  humble  and  sincere  confession, 
with  sorrow  for  having  been  so  faithless  to  Him. 

".  .  .  If,  when  you  cannot  see  M.  Singlin,  you 
believe  that  God  commands  this  delay  so  that  you  may 
go  with  true  humility  and  sincerity  to  some  one  else, 
you  will  receive  from  that  priest's  ministry  more  grace 
than  you  have  ever  received  up  till  now  from  the  ministry 
ofM.  Singlin." 

Madeleine  de  Sainte  Agnes  de  Ligny  has  written 
down  some  instructions  given  to  a  Sister,  probably  Soeur 
Madeleine  herself,  on  the  return  to  Port  Royal  des 
Champs. 

The  following  contains  an  epitome  of  Mere  Ange- 
lique's  general  advice  to  her  nuns  (in  illness) : — 

'  When  we  feel  weak  in  virtue,  and  that  we  do 
not  practise  sufficiently  that,  restraint  and  prudence 
which  are  suitable  to  an  invalid,  we  must  call  to  mind 
our  weakness  as  often  as  possible,  for  we  only  realise 
sicknesses  of  the  soul  by  remembering  them,  and  there 
is  no  guarantee  against  falling  except  by  an  inward 
retreat,  removing  ourselves  from  ^  anything  which 
weakens  us,  and  through  self-restraint  in  all  circum- 
stances, remembering  our  own  weakness,  humiliating 
ourselves  and  remembering  God,  invoking  His  Pre- 
sence, pray  ing  for  His  Help,  and  so  obtaining  a  constant 
sense  of  that  Presence  that  nothing  may  be  done  or  said 
unworthy  of  His  Majesty. 

'The  cure  for  our  souls  is  to  restrain  ourselves  as 
much  as  may  be,  in  deep  lowliness  before  God  ;  to  con- 
sider ourselves  so  poor  and  weak  that  we  can  do  nothing 
except  by  His  Grace  and  the  might  of  His  Spirit;  to 
listen  always  ^  to  those  about  us,  and  defer  to  them  as 
much  as  possible  ;  not  to  make  advances  to  others  except 
with  much  prudence  and  mistrust  of  self;  never  to 
desire  to  influence  other  people. 

;<  We  must  try  to  busy  ourselves  with  the  things  God 
has  committed  to  us,  and  reverence  every  circumstance 
as  being  ordered  by  His  divine  providence.  We  must 


ABBESS  FOE  THE  THIED  TIME        165 

try  to  be  silent,  only  speaking-  when  it  is  needful  or 
useful,  and  to  discover  before  speaking-  if  necessity  or 
edification  demands  speech,  and  even  then  not  to  speak 
too  much.  .  .  .  We  must  examine  ourselves  afterwards, 
to  see  if  we  made  no  mistake,  or  if  we  have  not  spoken 
too  much,  and  if  so  we  must  humiliate  ourselves  and 
pray  for  God's  forgiveness. 

"We  must  not,  unless  positively  oblig-ed,  speak 
about  ourselves,  or  of  our  own  advantages,  nor  of  those 
of  our  relations,  nor  of  those  of  our  neighbours  and 
acquaintances,  nor  of  what  we  have  seen  in  the  world, 
.  .  .  nor  of  what  we  have  heard  outside,  nor  of  what 
goes  on  in  the  monastery,  nothing-  which  is  simply  idle 
speech,  since  our  Lord  tells  us  that  we  must  give  account 
for  every  idle  word.  .  .  . 

;<  We  must  frequently  contemplate  our  Lord  sitting 
on  the  right  hand  of  God,  as  our  Mediator  and  Saviour. 
Contemplate  Him,  in  hope  and  confidence,  as  one  of 
His  elect.  Think  of  what  God  has  done  for  us  in  this 
respect :  '  Omnia  propter  electos.'^ 

"  Let  us  pray  to  God  often,  in  the  sighing  of  our 
hearts,  for  there  is  no  other  remedy  for  all  our  ills,  and 
all  our  secret  covetousness,  except  to  lay  them  bare  to 
His  mercy.  Let  us  despise  all  temporal  things.  ^ 

"  In  the  Gospel,  which  tells  us  of  our  Lord's  hiding  in 
the  Temple,  we  have  a  great  example  of  only  occupying 
ourselves  with  what  God  wishes  from  us,  of  seeking 
Jesus  Christ  only,  without  hurrying  or  fretting  about 
anything.  St  Ambrose  says  that  the  Blessed  Virgin 
was  reproved  by  her  Son,  in  that  she  was  still  seeking 
Him  from  the  human  side;  she  ought  to  have  wor- 
shipped and  submitted  herself  to  God  in  her  Son's 
absence  and  not  have  grieved  herself  about  it.  As  it 
was  not  permitted  even  to  the  Virgin  to  labour  about 
such  a  holy  thing,  about  what  shall  we  be  allowed  to 
worry  and  fret  ourselves  ?  " 

Mere  Angelique  was  re-elected  Abbess  for  the  third 
time  in  1648,  and  while  she  was  at  Port  Royal  de  Paris 
for  the  election  she  had  the  joy  of  welcoming  back  to 
the  Community  Marie  des  Anges,  who  had  been 
Abbess  at  Maubuisson  for  some  twenty  years,  and 
who  had  at  last  obtained  permission  to  resign  her 
dignities  and  return  to  her  true  home.  Marie  des 


166    THE  PORT  ROYAL  DES  CHAMPS 

Anges  was  a  true  child  of  Mere  Angelique,  filled  with 
her  spirit.  What  M.  Singlin  was  to  St  Cyran,  Marie 
des  Anges  was  to  Mere  Angelique ;  she  is,  as  Sainte 
Beuve  says,  of  the  first  generation  of  Port  Royal. 

Marie  des  Angles  had  been  sent  to  Maubuisson 
at  the  special  instance  of  Madame  de  Longueville,1 
in  succession  to  that  lady's  half-sister,  Mme.  de 
Soissons,  who  followed  Angelique,  and  who  had  relaxed 
the  rule  to  a  considerable  extent.  Marie  des  Anges, 
during  the  twenty  years  in  which  she  ruled  Maubuisson, 
was  utterly  faithful  to  the  Port  Royal  ideals,  the  Port 
Royal  methods. 

She  had  an  extraordinary  gift  for  winning  souls, 
and  it  was  granted  her  to  win  over  some  of  the  old 
recalcitrant  Sisters  who  had  held  out  against  Mere 
Angdique.  The  particular  confidante  of  Madame 
D'Estrees  with  whom  Angelique  had  had  the  memor- 
able struggle,  a  nun  described  as  a  "fille  perdue," 
named  "  De  la  Serre,"  was  still  at  Maubuisson  when 
Marie  des  Anges  arrived.  She  was  the  terror  of  the 
other  Sisters,  through  her  violent  temper.  But,  ac- 
cording to  the  story  told  in  the  Histoire  de  Port  Royal, 
De  la  Serre  was  converted  apparently  quite  suddenly 
by  the  Mother's  prayers,  and  lived  for  two  years  in 
very  real  penitence.  Mme.  de  Longueville,  who 
happened  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  Monastery  soon  after 
this  change,  could  scarcely  believe  her  eyes  or  ears, 
and  observed  to  the  Abbess  that  she  was  working 
miracles,  to  which  Marie  returned  the  obvious  but 
intensely  real  answer,  "C'est  Dieu  qui  fait  tout." 

Marie  des  Anges  was,  like  her  great  spiritual  mother 
Angelique,  an  excellent  administrator,  and  for  twenty 
years  laboured  for  the  good  of  the  villages  which  were 
the  property  of  the  Abbey. 

But  after  twenty  years  she  longed  to  lay  down  her 
charge  and  return  to  Port  Royal.  Her  friend  (and  to 
some  extent  her  protector),  the  Duchesse  de  Longueville, 
was  dead;  she  had  had  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  in 

1  The  first  wife  of  that  Due  de  Longueville,  whose  second  wife  was 
Conde's  sister,  our  Madame  de  Longueville. 


MARIE  DBS  ANGES  167 

preventing  the  Duke  from  forcing  on  her  as  coadjutor 
Abbess  his  natural  daughter,  a  mere  girl,  who  had 
been  brought  up  at  Maubuisson,  and  professed,  much 
against  the  Abbess's  wishes. 

Marie  laid  down  her  burden  in  the  same  spirit  in 
which  she  had  taken  it  up.  She  wrote  to  Mere 
Angelique  for  advice,  and  was  told  to  pray  much,  but 
that  a  successor  could  be  found.  This  was  Suzanne 
du  Saint  Esprit  de  Roche,  whom  we  remember  long 
ago  at  Port  Royal,  and  who  was  now  an  Abbess  of 
another  monastery.1  The  formalities  were  accom- 
plished, permission  was  obtained  from  Rome,  and  to 
the  bitter  grief  of  the  nuns,  Marie  des  Anges  left 
Maubuisson  and  arrived  at  Port  Royal  de  Paris  the 
same  day.  The  first  thing-  she  did  was  to  give  up  to 
Mere  Angelique  every  scrap  of  private  property  which 
she  possessed,  and  to  beg  that  she  might  be  sent 
among  the  novices,  to  learn  to  obey.  She  was  indeed 
allowed  to  go  to  the  novices,  but  not  as  one  of  them ; 
she  was  to  aid  Agnes  Arnauld,  who  was  their  Mistress. 

Mere  Angelique  said  of  her :  "She  is  truly  blessed, 
for  she  was  called  by  God  to  the  office  of  an  Abbess. 
But  I  was  laid  under  a  curse  when  men,  not  God,  made 
me  Abbess  and  I  was  blessed  by  the  monks  of 
Citeaux." 

It  is  tempting  to  give  some  of  Agnes  Arnauld's 
letters  here — a  few  extracts  must  suffice. 

Writing  to  a  Sister  who  had  asked  advice  as  to 
distraction  in  prayer,  Agnes  says  : — 

"  About  prayer,  it  is  more  difficult  to  keep  our  minds 
fixed.  When  no  thoughts  occur  to  us,  it  is  better  to 
say  from  time  to  time  vocal  prayers,  such  as  Veni 
Creator,  Ave  Maria,  verses  of  Psalms,  which  you 
know,  and  which  will  give  you  devotion  ;  then  remain 
quietly  a  little  while  before  God  and  say  to  Him  : 
Speak,  Lord,  for  Thy  servant  ^heareth.  One  day  you 
will  throw  yourself  at  His  feet  like  the  Syro- Phoenician 
woman,  and  ask  Him  for  the  crumbs  which  fall  from 
His  table,  that  they  may  feed  your  soul;  another  day 

1  Lieu  Dieu  at  Beaune. 


168    THE  PORT  ROYAL  DES  CHAMPS 

you  will  be  as  the  centurion,  and  entreat  Him  to  say 
only  one  word  to  heal  your  soul ;  another  time  you  will 
pray  Him,  as  the  Samaritan  woman  prayed,  that  He 
would  give  you  living  water  which  will  take  a  way  ^  all 
thirst  for  anything  but  Him.  You  must  use  every  kind 
of  means  in  order  to  rouse  your  mind  and  your  heart  to 
the  knowledge  and  love  of  God  above  all  things.  t  If 
you  meditate  in  silence  God  will  reward  you  by  giving 
you  holy  thoughts,  and  the  deprivation  of  conversation 
with  created  beings  will  incline  you  to  intercourse  with 
God.  I  pray  Him,  dear  Sister,  to  grant  you  this 
grace." 

A  little  earlier  she  writes  to  one  of  her  nieces  : — 

"  You  must  not  be  surprised  if  your  thoughts  of  God 
are  only  passing  thoughts  and  your  distractions  lasting, 
for  these  last  are  our  own,  and  the  others  are  sent  from 
God  to  us,  who  depend  on  His  good  pleasure ;  that  is 
why  we  must  receive  them  with  deep  humility,  and  bear 
to  be  deprived  of  them  in  that  same  lowliness  of  mind, 
which  causes  us  to  confess  that  we  do  not  deserve  His 
visits  to  our  hearts,  which  are  so  often  full  of  vain 
thoughts,  vain  wishes,  vain  preoccupations,  cold  and 
destitute  of  any  love  worthy  of  Him. 

"And  about  the  special  grace  of  your  profession,  I 
think  our  Lord  certainly  allows  you  to  speak  of  it  with 
joy;  only  it  seems  to  me  it  should  always  be  traced 
back  to  its  source,  which  is  the  first  union  you  have 
with  the  Son  of  God  by  Baptism,  and  no  doubt  that  is 
the  most  intimate  union ;  it  may  supply  every^  other 
way  of  being  united  with  God,  but  the  place  of  it  can- 
not be  supplied  by  any  other." 

Agnes  writes  to  another  Sister  : — 

"It  is  really  a  great  privilege  to  be  ill,  for  illnesses 
are  called  visits  of  God.  .  .  .  Everything  we  do  to 
attract  God  to  oneself,  is  very  often  interrupted  and  im- 
perfect ;  and  illness  removes  the  obstacles  which  we 
bring  in  the  way  of  God's  work.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  true  that  illness  prevents  us  from  thinking 
and  occupying  our  minds,  but  it  is  enough  to  remember 
sometimes  that  God  sees  us,  and  that  we  are  the  objects 
of  His  pity  if  we  suffer  with  an  entire  submission  to 
His  will." 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


ANG^LIQUE'S  WISE  CHAEITY    169 

There  are  various  little  personal  touches  in  Agnes's 
letters.  She  refers  to  the  profession  of  Marie  de  Sainte 
Madeleine  du  Fargis  in  1640 ;  we  shall  meet  her  again 
in  the  dark  days  of  Port  Royal. 

The  following-  is  from  a  letter  of  Mere  Angelique. 
She  is  writing  to  one  of  the  Port  Royal  nuns  : — 

"  Do  not  be  surprised,  dearest  Sister,  at  the  bitter- 
ness of  soul  in  which  it  pleases  God  that  you  should  be. 
Remember  that  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Holy  Altar,  to  the 
honour  of  which  you  wish  to  dedicate  yourself,  was  pre- 
ceded by  the  bloody  sacrifice  of  the  Cross.  For  if  it 
was  instituted  before,  it  was  only  so  to  speak  in  advance, 
as  we  have  been  taught.  It  is  right  then  that  your 
offering  should  be  painful,  and  that  you  should  accept 
this  suffering,  and  the  attendant  circumstances.  I  hope 
our  Lord  will  be  glorified  in  them.  He  has  swallowed 
up  death  in  victory.  The  ways  of  God  are  incompre- 
hensible and  adorable." 

For  a  very  little  time  the  Community  had  peace. 
The  "  Solitaires,"  some  of  whom  had  been  obliged  for 
want  of  room  sorrowfully  to  retire  to  Paris,  were  able 
soon  to  come  back,  as  some  houses  were  built  for  them 
near  the  farm  called  "  Les  Granges,"  to  which  M.  Le 
Maitre  and  M.  de  Sericourt  had  retired.  Antoine 
Arnauld,  who  was  living  in  partial  concealment,  became 
one  of  the  confessors  to  the  Port  Royal  nuns. 

After  their  return  to  Port  Royal,  Angelique  did  all 
she  could  to  help  the  poor,  but  she  was  more  prudent 
than  our  own  William  Law,  who  tried  so  hard  to  follow 
the  way  of  perfection  and  succeeded  in  demoralising  his 
whole  neighbourhood.  Mere  Angelique  persuaded  the 
excellent  physician  M.  Pallu  to  act  the  part  of,  as  it  were, 
an  agent  of  a  Charity  Organisation  Society,  and  to 
find  out  for  her  who  were  deserving  objects  of  charity. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  SCHOOLS  OF  PORT  ROYAL  (1638-1653) 

PORT  ROYAL  is  associated  inseparably  with  an  educa- 
tional movement.  And  this  movement  is  due  to  the 
master  mind  of  St  Cyran.  Already  we  have  seen  how 
deeply  imbued  he  was  with  love  for  children,  and  care 
for  their  good  education  and  nurture.  He  saw  with  that 
keen  eye  of  his,  that  the  true  vocation  for  Lancelot  was 
that  of  a  teacher,  and  Claude  Lancelot's  and  also 
Fontaine's  first  employment  was  teaching.  A  few 
children  were  gathered  together  at  Port  Royal  de  Paris, 
and  afterwards  at  Port  Royal  des  Champs.  Yet  the 
whole  period  of  this  educational  work  lasted  only  about 
fifteen  years,  and  was  often  disturbed. 

The  first  beginnings  were  made  with  St  Cyran's 
nephews  and  two  sons  of  M.  Bignon,  and  to  these  were 
added  a  young  son  of  M.  d'Andilly  and  the  son  of  St 
Cyran's  dear  friend,  Mme.  de  Saint  Ange.  And  we 
have  seen  how  the  young  Thomas  Fosse  and  his  brother 
were  sent  by  their  parents  to  Port  Royal  in  1643. 
Lancelot  was  not  there  just  then  ;  the  masters  were 
M.  de  Sericourt  and  M.  de  Bascle. 

For  a  short  time,  owing  to  the  first  mutterings  of 
the  storm  which  was  occasioned  by  Antoine  Arnauld's 
book,  De  la  Frtquente  Communion,  the  boys  were  sent 
to  a  country-house  belonging  to  a  Port  Royal  friend, 
M.  des  Touches,  but  they  returned  to  Port  Royal,  and 
Lancelot  came  from  Paris  to  direct  their  studies.  More 
children  came,  and  the  school  was  removed  to  Paris  and 
regularly  established  there.  Four  masters  directed 
their  studies,  Lancelot,  Nicole,  Guyot,  Coustel,  and 
each  of  these  had  six  boys  under  his  special  charge. 

170 


A  PIOUS  HEADMASTER  171 

The  Superior,  or  headmaster,  was  M.  Wallon  de 
Beaupuis,  a  very  beautiful  example  of  what  Port  Royal 
produced  in  the  way  of  both  piety  and  learning".  His 
most  celebrated  pupils  were  M.  de  Tillemont,  the 
ecclesiastical  historian,  and  the  poet  Racine.  Many 
more  might  be  mentioned :  oddly  enough  the  Duke  of 
Monmouth  spent  a  little  time  at  Chesnai,  near  Versailles, 
where  a  few  boys  were  collected  by  M.  de  Bernieres.  If 
only  these  plans  of  serious,  solid  education  had  been 
spared,  what  numbers  of  grave,  austere  young-  French- 
men might  have  grown  up  in  France,  somewhat  the  sort 
of  persons  whom  Dr  Arnold  of  Rugby  was  supposed  to 
send  out  into  the  world,  with  the  additional  advantage 
of  being  Catholics. 

Probably  Les  Petites  Ecoles,  from  the  accounts  we 
read  of  the  politeness  and  decorum  which  were  incul- 
cated in  them,  turned  out  youths  more  courteous  and 
gracious  than  were  the  shy  and  desperately  in  earnest 
Rugbeians  of  Arnold's  day.  But  Dr  Arnold  and  the 
Port  Royal  masters,  Lancelot,  De  Beaupuis,  and  the 
rest,  were  alike  in  their  lofty  moral  purpose,  their  desire 
to  build  up  character,  to  send  boys  out  into  Oxford  and 
Paris,  among  a  corrupt  generation,  to  shine  as  lights. 
Perhaps  no  worse  service  was  ever  done  to  the  cause 
of  Christian  education  than  the  destruction  of  the 
Port  Royal  Schools.  No  one  wishes  to  dispute  the 
services  which  the  Jesuits  have  rendered  to  education  ; 
but  there  are  other  ideals  and  other  methods  besides 
those  of  the  Society,  and  it  seems  a  misfortune  to 
make  the  lover  of  France  and  of  French  religion 
gnash  his  teeth,  that  this  one  Order  should  have  so 
completely  dominated  the  Western  Church. 

For  four  years  the  schools  {Petites  E coles  was 
their  modest  title)  were  prosperous,  although  they  were 
not  in  good  repute  in  high  places. 

Mere  Ang£lique  wrote  to  the  Queen  of  Poland  : — 

"February  1645. 

"  To  the  Queen  of  Poland. 

'  The  Queen  [Anne  of  Austria]  has  been 
made  to  believe  that  in  the  house  of  Des  Touches — a 


172     THE  SCHOOLS  OF  POET  EOYAL 

young  man  of  twenty-seven,  who  has  a  good  deal  of 
property  and  has  only  kept  enough  on  which  to  live 
quietly,  having  given  the  remainder  away — in  this 
house,  I  repeat,  she  has  been  told,  are  forty  men  all 
brought  up  in  heresy.  In  addition,  it  has  been  reported 
of  another  house,  to  which  some  children  were  sent  who 
had  been  at  Port  Royal  with  five  excellent  young  men 
who  educated  them  [Lancelot,  Nicole,  M.  Wallon  de 
Beaupuis,  were  of  this  band],  that  it  was  a  Community, 
that  no  one  ever  went  out,  that  the  boys  were  all 
dressed  alike,  that  they  had  a  chapel,  and  were  called 
the  Little  Brothers  of  Grace.  In  order  to  mend  all  these 
disorders,  M.  le  Lieutenant  Civil  was  sent  to  inspect 
these  houses.  He  was  not  a  little  surprised  to  find  that 
all  he  had  been  told  was  absolutely  untrue  ;  and  he  said 
to  these  gentlemen  that  they  had  enemies  who  spread 
evil  reports  about  .  .  .  All  this  does  not  tend  to  our 
quietness  of  mind  ....  But,  after  all,  nothing  will 
happen  except  what  God  pleases  ;  and  what  pleases  God 
ought  to  please  us." 

The  life  led  by  Port  Royal  boys  was  carefully 
regulated  and  had  a  due  admixture  of  play  and  work, 
and  much,  but  not  overmuch,  attendance  at  the  Offices 
of  Religion.  Young  boys,  for  instance,  were  not  sent 
to  Mass  very  frequently  in  the  week.  But  there  was, 
as  M.  de  Sainte  Beuve  points  out,  a  peculiar  "ethos" 
about  Port  Royal  schools.  What  was  it?  The  aim 
of  the  Port  Royalists  was  simply  to  preserve  Baptismal 
innocence. 

M.  de  Sainte  Marthe  wrote  : — 

"  There  is  only  too  much  reason  to  deplore  the  sight 
of  children  of  Christians  who  show  almost  no  sign  of 
their  Baptismal  grace  ....  they  have  their  minds 
closed  to  spiritual  things  and  cannot  understand  them  ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  they  have  their  eyes  open 
to  evil :  their  senses  are  liable  to  every  kind  of  corrup- 
tion." 

He  goes  on  to  describe  how  at  school  the  children 
are  practically  left  to  themselves,  and  "the  sheep  are 
forsaken  by  their  pastors;  they* become  the  prey  of 
wolves  ....  no  one  cares  for  them,  for  there  is  nothing 


LENIENT  DISCIPLINE  173 

in  the  world  which  excites  people's  interest  so  little 
as  the  loss  of  souls."  Sad  words,  but  true,  as  many 
an  English  public  schoolboy  could  testify.  Sainte 
Marthe  tells  us  how  St  Cyran  was  consumed  by  a 
fervent  love  for  the  tender  souls  of  children. 

M.  de  Beaupuis  tells  us  : — 

"This  is  what  the  masters  tried  to  do  who  were  in 
charge  of  these  children  .  .  .  they  were  to  watch 
continually  over  the  little  troop,  never  losing-  them  from 
sight,  and  considering  them  as  a  precious  trust  for  which 
God  would  assuredly  demand  a  terrible  reckoning. 

"They  should  carry  them  in  their  hearts  and  offer 
them  to  God  incessantly,  to  draw  on  them  His  bless- 
ings and  His  grace.  They  should  try  to  seize  every 
opportunity  which  presented  itself  for  giving  them 
salutary  instructions.  They  should  adapt  themselves  to 
the  children's  weakness.  They  should  bear  with  them 
in  their  infirmities  with  patience,  and  they  should  never 
cease  to  wait  on  them.  .  .  .  They  should  make  it  plain 
how  full  of  snares  and  of  dangers  the  world  is  [this  is 
very  characteristic  of  Port  Royal] ;  that  Christians 
should  use  it,  as  not  abusing  it ;  and  that,  in  order  to 
overcome  the  world,  we  must  care  neither  for  greatness, 
riches,  or  pleasures." 

Very  little  corporal  punishment  was  allowed. 
St  Cyran  himself  had  in  early  days  laid  down  as  a 
principle  that  the  rod  should  be  used  only  for  very  grave 
faults — a  great  contrast  with  the  ideas  then  in  vogue 
on  the  subject. 

Fontaine  gives  us  a  touching  account  of  the  tender- 
ness and  reasonableness  of  M.  de  Saci's  views  on 
children : — 

"He  often  recommended  me  not  to  be  too  strict,  and 
not  to  get  too  uneasy ;  .  .  .  that  it  was  needful  to  be 
content  if  one  could  check  grave  faults  by  closing  one's 
eyes  to  others,  even  if  they  did  not  seem  tiny  faults  ; 
that  one  must  cure  these  little  by  little  and  very  much 
by  degrees  ;  that  one  must  be  for  ever  loving,  otherwise 
one  would  kill  oneself,  and  do  them  no  good. 

"  He  was  never  tired  of  advising  delay  in  warnings 
and  reproofs ;  for  by  omitting  mention  of  some  faults, 


174     THE  SCHOOLS  OF  POET  EOYAL 

one  could  cure  others  ;  one  could  easily  set  any  small 
disorders  right  by  a  few  words  ;  for  God  always  made 
one  know  when  it  was  time  to  speak  to  them  ;  one  could 
only  get  to  know  the  little  ones  by  adapting  oneself  to 
them  and  by  suiting  oneself  to  their  minds.  If  we  did 
not  do  this,  the  children  would  not  receive  our  words  of 
advice." 

Wonderfully  wise  and  tender  words,  which  might 
well  be  pondered  by  modern  parents  and  teachers. 

Patience  and  silence,  M.  de  Saci  went  on  to  say, 
were  two  great  qualities  for  the  teacher  to  cherish  in 
himself. 

To  teach  the  children  to  correspond  with  grace  was 
the  great,  the  ruling  principle  of  Port  Royal.  Man's 
helplessness  without  grace  and  the  need  of  co-operation 
with  grace,  this  mysterious  union,  was  for  ever  insisted 
on.  As  Sainte  Beuve  says,  here  is  no  fatalism.  We 
can  do  nothing  without  God's  grace,  but  we  must  co- 
operate with  it. 

Some  years  after  the  dispersion  of  the  Port  Royal 
schools,  one  of  the  masters  published  a  book  on  the 
education  of  children,  in  which  he  discusses  the  different 
methods  of  education.  He,  like  other  Port  Royalists, 
and  especially  St  Cyran,  prefers  to  bring  up  a  few  boys 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  religious  house,  so  that  the 
example  of  an  austere  and  self-surrendered  life  might  be 
ever  in  view,  and  yet  in  the  house  itself  the  atmosphere 
should  be  one  of  home. 

This  was  the  ideal  of  Port  Royal :  an  innocent,  happy 
boyhood  spent  under  the  care  of  a  Christian  scholar, 
whose  aim  it  should  be  to  turn  out  Christian  scholars. 

For  actual  teaching  it  is  well  known  that  Port  Royal 
was  renowned.  Especially  Lancelot's  method  of  learn- 
ing Greek  and  Latin,  and  the  Grammaire  Gdndrale  et 
Raisonde  of  which  Lancelot  and  Arnauld  were  the 
authors,  were  real  innovations.  Latin  and  Greek  were 
taught  through  the  medium  of  French.1  To  Port 

1  Greek  had  almost  ceased  to  be  taught  in  French  colleges.  The  Port 
Royal  schools,  thanks  chiefly  to  M.  Wallon  de  Beaupuis,  made  it  one  of 
the  principal  subjects. 


THE  PORT  ROYAL  LOGIC  175 

Royal  belongs  the  honour  of  having  brought  literary 
education  up  to  the  level  of  the  advance  and  growth 
which  made  the  seventeenth  century  so  marked  a 
period  in  the  history  of  French  literature. 

The  most  celebrated  of  all  the  books  which  pro- 
ceeded from  Port  Royal  was  the  celebrated  Port  Royal 
Logic ;  La  Logique,  ou  r Art  de  Penser,  contenant 
outre  les  Regies  Communes,  plusieurs  Observations 
nouveaux  propre  a  former  le  Jugement,  is  the  somewhat 
cumbersome  title  of  the  best  known  of  Port  Royal 
manuals. 

The  joint  authors,  of  the  first  three  of  the  four  parts 
into  which  the  book  is  divided,  were  Arnauld  and  Nicole. 
Arnauld  is  the  sole  author  of  Part  IV.  Arnauld  was, 
however,  the  real  author  so  far  as  the  original  thought 
of  the  Logic  is  concerned. 

It  is  extraordinarily  clear,  and  shows  the  influence 
of  Descartes,  to  whose  philosophy  Arnauld,  and  in 
consequence  Port  Royal,  was  strongly  inclined. 

Sainte  Beuve  points  out  that  the  type  of  scholar 
which  it  was  the  design  of  the  book  to  form  was  the 
Christian  ;  not  simply  a  learned  man  or  a  pure  logician, 
but  a  Christian.  The  book  is  resonant  with  that  lofty 
tone  of  perfect  independence  of  great  people  which  is  so 
distinguishing  a  characteristic  of  Port  Royal. 

It  is  curious  to  find  theology  introduced  into  a  work 
on  logic.  In  Part  I.,  chap,  xv.,  there  is  a  dissertation 
as  to  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Eucharist.  Arnauld  had 
already  been  engaged  in  correspondence  with  Descartes 
on  this  subject,  and  perhaps  it  is  with  a  lasting  desire 
to  vindicate  the  orthodoxy  of  his  logic  and  the  Cartesian 
philosophy  that  he  expounds  the  doctrine  in  the  chapter 
entitled,  "Of  ideas  which  the  mind  adds  to  those  which 
are  expressly  signified  by  words." 

The  Logic  is  in  four  parts,  of  which  only  Part  IV.  is 
purely  Arnauld's  ;  he  and  Nicole  (of  whom  more  later) 
collaborated  in  the  first  three.  It  is  in  four  divisions, 
preceded  by  two  preliminary  discussions,  and  these 
divisions  correspond  to  the  four  chief  operations  of  the 
mind — "concevoir,  juger,  raisonner,  ordonner,"  of 


176     THE   SCHOOLS   OF  POET  EOYAL 

ideas,  propositions,  syllogism,  and  lastly  on  method. 
The  second  title  of  the  book,  L Art  de  Penser,  really 
describes  its  purpose.  It  did  a  great  deal  to  make 
logic  metaphysical  and  ethical,  and  it  cleared  away 
much  of  the  barbarism  and  technicalities  which  had 
hitherto  darkened  knowledge.  Above  all,  ArAauld 
substitutes  his  native  tongue  in  place  of  a  dead 
one. 

It  is  tempting  to  quote  passages  from  Part  IV.,  so 
full  as  it  is  of  that  prudent,  moderate,  high-toned, 
ethical  spirit  of  the  best  Port  Royalists.  Once  only 
did  Arnauld  forget  moderation,  and  then  it  was  to 
launch  himself  at  Montaigne,  in  the  same  chapter  in 
which  occurs  a  fine  passage  on  "too  much  speaking  of 
oneself." 

Montaigne,  one  of  the  few  authors  whom  Pascal 
really  studied,  is  the  very  antithesis  of  the  stern 
Arnauld,  who  was  really  incapable  of  doing  him  justice, 
and  whose  repugnance  and  detestation  of  Montaigne 
seem  to  burst  out  in  spite  of  himself. 

Part  III.  is  pleasanter  reading.  Here  the  influence 
of  Descartes  is  clearly  seen. 

All  systems  of  philosophy  have  their  day,  and  other 
schools  of  thought  have  succeeded  to  the  Cartesian.  It 
has  been  rediscovered  by  non-Catholics  that  St 
Thomas  Aquinas  and  Albertus  Magnus  were  giants  of 
intellect,  and  that  St  Thomas  is  after  all  the  champion 
of  rational  religion.  Time  brings  many  changes,  and 
Albertus,  Aquinas,  Anselm,  can  no  longer  be  dismissed 
by  any  educated  person  with  the  lofty  contempt  be- 
stowed on  them  by  such  writers  as  George  Henry 
Lewes  and  Macaulay. 

Now  Antoine  Arnauld,  as  F.  D.  Maurice  pointed 
out,  never  felt  the  need  of  the  reconciliation  between 
philosophy  and  theology.  Such  men  play  a  great  part 
and  have  their  special  vocation,  but  they  can  never 
build  up  the  truth  or  bring  out  the  real  harmony  which 
lies  latent  in  the  Creed  with  all  that  is  rich  and  true 
and  permanent  in  human  thought.  The  chilly  atmos- 
phere of  Cartesianism  was  perhaps  as  fatal  to  Arnauld 


^-  x/rz^**/  (</ 


CUE  LITTLE  SYSTEMS  HAVE  THEIE  DAY  177 

as  was  Locke's  system  to  English  theology.  Only  for 
a  time,  however  ;  and  in  later  years,  later  thinkers  have 
taken  up  the  ever-recurring-  task,  and  have  set  forth  in 
noble  words  and  in  varying  manners,  the  truth  of  the 
interdependence  of  theology  and  metaphysics.1 
1  See  Moberly's  Reason  and  Religion. 


M 


CHAPTER  VIII 

"LA  FRfiQUENTE   COMMUNION"   (1643) 

ANTOINE  ARNAULD'S  book,  which  produced  an  extra- 
ordinary storm  of  controversy,  appeared  in  1643,  very 
shortly  before  M.  de  St  Cyran's  death,  and  we  must  go 
back  a  little  in  point  of  time  to  consider  it.  It  is  the 
first  work  which  emanated  from  Port  Royal,  and  was, 
as  it  were,  the  first  manifesto,  the  first  book  stamped 
with  the  impress  of  the  Port  Royal  thought,  breathing 
the  Port  Royal  spirit.  It  was  a  setting  forth  of  that 
which  was  the  very  essence  of  all  that  is  meant  by  the 
teaching  of  Port  Royal — true  repentance,  the  need  of 
correspondence  with  grace,  the  danger  of  unworthy 
reception. 

A  strange  little  bit  of  social  history  seems  to  have 
been  the  raison  d'etre  of  the  book.  Two  ladies,  both 
known  in  Port  Royal  history,  were  in  1643  under 
different  directors.  The  Princess  de  Guemenee,  who 
just  then  was  under  St  Cyran's  guidance,  refused  to  go 
to  a  ball  on  the  day  when  she  made  her  Communion. 
Madame  de  Sable,  of  whom  we  shall  speak  later,  had 
a  Jesuit  confessor,  and  made  no  objection  to  such  a 
proceeding. 

A  discussion  ensued,  and  a  letter  from  the  Jesuit 
confessor  fell  into  M.  Antoine  Arnauld's  hands.  It 
contained  the  kernel  of  the  whole  argument :  "  Plus  on 
est  denue  de  grace,  plus  on  doit  hardiment  s'approcher 
de  Jesus-Christ  dans  FEucharistie." 

Nothing  can  well  be  more  opposed  to  the  spirit  of 
St  Cyran  and  all  the  Port  Royalists  than  this  crude 
statement.  Arnauld  set  himself  to  refute  it,  and  as 

178 


ARNAULD'S  METHODS  AND  VIEWS  179 

M.  de  Sainte  Beuve  says,  no  book  of  devotion  made  so 
great  a  sensation  since  the  appearance  of  La  Vie  Devote. 
Certainly  the  Vie  De'vote  has  had  a  longer  life  than 
Antoine's  rather  ponderous  and  stiff  volume,  which 
nevertheless  is  full  of  interest  and  of  striking-  passages 
which  seem  oddly  and  delightfully  in  accordance  with 
the  teaching  of  our  best  Anglican  writers.  It  is  not, 
however,  one  of  the  most  attractive  books  to  read,  of 
the  many  controversial  works  which  have  been  written 
on  the  Blessed  Sacrament  of  Love.  Antoine's  method 
is  to  state  his  adversary's  position,  and  then  to  demolish 
him  ;  he  writes  exactly  as  if  he  were  stating  a  proposition 
of  Euclid ;  his  lucidity,  his  logical  severity,  his  well- 
balanced  style  are  all  there,  but  the  effect  on  a  modern 
reader  is  sometimes  that  of  revulsion  from  such  a 
method  of  treating  such  a  question.  But — there  was  a 
cause. 

The  easy-going,  lax,  low  view  of  religious  life 
shocked  the  moral  sense,  the  lofty  ideal,  the  reverence 
for  God's  Law  which  were  the  natural  inheritance  of  all 
who  drank  from  the  clear  well  of  Port  Royal  teaching. 
And  the  very  dryness,  the  logical  cast  into  which 
Arnauld  framed  his  book,  appealed  to  the  religious 
world. 

But,  as  one  reads  the  Frdquente  Communion,  one 
feels  that  surely  no  rules  can  be  laid  down,  that  Repent- 
ance and  Conversion  to  God  are  still  the  fundamental 
truths,  and  that  no  one  who  can  argue  about,  or  calcu- 
late on,  the  possibility  of  himself  falling  into  mortal  sin, 
getting  out  of  it  again,  and  repeating  the  process,  can 
possibly  have  been  converted.  "O  my  God,  let  me 
rather  die  than  sin  wilfully,"  has  been  put  into  our  lips 
by  a  saint  of  the  English  Church,  and  that  represents 
a  state  of  mind  to  which  we  hope  to  attain. 

Arnauld's  views  seem  to  be  fairly  shown  by  the 
following  extract  from  his  preface,  in  which,  by  the  way, 
he  deals  very  faithfully  with  his  Jesuit  opponent : — 

"  So  that  if  it  is  a  great  sin  to  approach  this  Holy 
Table,  this  awful  sacrifice  (to  quote  the  Fathers), 


180      "LA  FREQUENTE  COMMUNION" 

without  the  needful  correspondence  of  heart  and  mind 
for  so  divine  and  holy  an  action,  it  is  no  less  a  sin  to 
neglect  the  task  of  making-  oneself  worthy  to  approach, 
unless  one  is  cut  off  by  the  command  of  the  Canons 
and  of  the  Church.  I  do  not  know  which  of  the  two 
cases  is  most  to  be  condemned. 

"One  man  makes  himself  guilty  of  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  the  Son  of  God  by  profane  reception ; 
another  makes  that  Body  and  Blood  of  no  avail  for  him, 
because  he  desecrates  his  soul  and  refuses  to  receive. 
One,  as  the  apostle  says,  eats  and  drinks  his  own 
condemnation,  not  discerning  the  Lord's  Body  and 
treating  it  as  common  food  ;  the  other  despises  his 
Judge  by  neglecting  to  prepare  his  soul  for  feeding  on 
the  Divine  food  which  is  offered  him.  The^  one  is 
condemned  in  the  Gospel  in  the  person  of  him  who 
came  to  the  marriage  feast  of  the  king's  son  without 
a  wedding  garment  and  was  cast  into  outer  darkness. 
The  other  is  like  those  who  refused  to  go  to  the  feast 
to  which  they  were  invited,  and  of  whom  Jesus  Christ 
says,  that  these  shall  never  taste  His  banquet;  that 
is,  they  shall  never  enter  Paradise." 

Arnauld's  position  seems  quite  unassailable  that,  "  the 
Eucharist  is  so  Divine  and  comfortable  a  thing  to  them 
who  receive  it  worthily,  and  so  dangerous  to  them  that 
presume  to  receive  it  unworthily  "  ;  he  felt,  as  the  same 
exhortation  goes  on  to  say,  that  he  must  urge  his 
readers  to  consider  "the  dignity  of  that  holy 
mystery." 

But  Arnauld  goes  on  to  discuss  the  question :  in 
order  to  be  in  a  fit  state  to  receive  Holy  Communion, 
is  it  sufficient  not  to  have  a  mortal  sin  on  the  con- 
science ? 

This  chapter,  "  Partie  III.,  chap  viii.,"  is  very  inter- 
esting. He  speaks  of  the  terrible  dangers  of  self-deceit, 
of  the  necessity  of  enlightening  the  conscience.  The 
following  passage  deserves  to  be  quoted  :  — 

"  Certainly  one  must  be  strangely  blind,  if  one  is  not 
touched  by  one's  own  experience,  and  if  one  never 
experiences  the  least  fear  that  all  one's  confessions  and 
one's  Communions  may  be  acts  of  sacrilege;  if  we 


ANGLICAN  TEACHING  181 

see  that  they  have  resulted  in  no  amendment  of  life. 
For  since  the  Sacraments  never  fail  to  produce  their 
effect  when  they  are  rightly  received,  if  we  see  in  our- 
selves no  sign  of  these  effects,  but  on  the  contrary 
something-  wholly  opposed  to  grace,  are  we  not  blind, 
rilled  with  darkness,  if  we  do  not  realise  it  is  our  own 
failure  to  correspond  with  the  Sacraments,  which 
arrests  the  access  of  spiritual  strength,  and  prevents 
the  waters  of  life  from  flowing  in  upon  the  soul?  As 
one  of  the  principal  effects  of  the  Eucharist  is  to  give 
us  strength  against  the  assaults  of  our  enemies,  and 
to  provide  us  with  a  heavenly  antidote,  which  protects 
us  against  being  again  infected  by  mortal  sin,  as  we 
are  taught  by  the  Council  of  Trent :  then  do  we  not 
deceive  ourselves,  by  persuading  ourselves  that  our 
Communions  are  fruitful,  if  we  never  feel  any  fresh 
strength  and  if  we  fall  very  easily  into  sin  ? " 


Again  Arnauld  speaks  of  the  abiding  effect  of  Holy 
Communion : — 

"  We  have  only  to  consider  that  the  Saviour  does  not 
say  of  him  who  eats  His  Flesh  and  drinks  His  Blood, 
he  is  in  Me,  and  I  am  in  him,  but  he  abides  in  Me,  and 
I  in  him.  '  In  me  manet,  et  ego  in  eo.' 

"  From  which  we  learn  without  difficulty,  since  every 
word  of  our  Lord  is  to  be  carefully  weighed,  that  the 
effect  of  the  Eucharist  is  not  that  our  Lord  comes  to 
us  in  a  passing  visitation,  but  that  He  establishes  His 
dwelling  in  the  soul,  that  He  takes  possession  of  it  and 
dominates  it,  that  He  makes  it  to  be  His  Palace, 
and  His  Kingdom  ;  He  dwells  in  it  and  reigns  in  it." 


This  is  in  direct  accordance  with  the  teaching  of  the 
best  Anglican  theologians.  I  will  only  quote  a  passage 
from  Bishop  Gore's  book,  The  Body  of  Christ : — 

'  The  coming  of  Christ  to  the  Christian  through 
Holy^Communion  is  in  Roman  theology  and  books  of 
devotion  spoken  of  as  a  temporary  visit  which,  though 
certain  fruits  remain,  is  yet  in  its  primary  sense,  as  an 
indwelling  of  Christ,  over  when  the  digestion  of  the 
material  food  begins — it  is  suggested  after  a  quarter  of 


182      "LA  FREQUENTE  COMMUNION" 

an  hour.     '  This  day,'  so  devotion  is  taught  to  express 
itself, 

" '  My  Lord 

Came  to  my  lowly  tenement 
And  stayed  awhile  with  me.' " 

Or— 

" '  Oh,  when  wilt  Thou  always 
Make  our  hearts  Thine  own  ? 
We  must  wait  for  heaven, 
Then  the  day  will  come.' " 

"  Now  such  an  idea  of  a  temporary  visit  of  Christ  to 
the  soul  is  in  most  marked  contradiction  to  the  teaching 
of  the  undivided  Church.  *  He  is  held  for  a  moment  in 
your  hands,  but  He  is  wholly  resolved  into  your  heart/ 
says  St  Chrysostom.  '  What  you  see  in  the  Sacrament/ 
says  St  Augustine,  'passes  away,  but  the  invisible  thing 
signified  does  not  pass  away,  but  remains/  The  whole 
teaching  of  the  Fathers  on  the  subject  seems  indeed  to 
be  a  loving  commentary  upon  pur  Lord's  words  about 
His  abiding  in  us  and  we  in  Him/  " l 

But  there  is  much  more  agreement  than  would 
appear  ;  take  this  passage  from  Father  Dalgairns'  book 
on  Holy  Communion  : — 

"This,  then  .  .  .  is  the  permanent  effect  of  the  Holy 
Eucharist ;  it  is  the  union  of  the  very  soul  of  Jesus  with 
ours,  not  in  figure  but  in  reality  .  .  .  In  proportion  as  our 
old  human  life  disappears  before  His  influence,  human 
views  and  feelings  vanish  away,  and  the  thoughts  and 
desires  of  Jesus  are  substituted  for  them.  Instead  of 
the  love  of  ease  comes  the  thirst  for  suffering ;  instead 
of  selfishness,  a  self-devoted  zeal  and  a  tender  pity  like 
that  of  Jesus,  who  alone  is  living  within  us,  while  our 
old  self  is  dead." 

Arnauld  has  been  charged  with  extra  severity  and 
rigour,  in  no  measured  terms.  The  book  does  not 
seem  to  warrant  so  much  opprobrium.  It  is  one  thing 
to  follow  the  Lord's  example  of  tenderness  and  com- 
passion to  sinners  who  are  outside^  to  those  who  do  not 
know  Him.  It  is  a  totally  different  thing  to  lower  the 
standard  of  Christian  discipleship.  We  have  seen  how 

1  The  Body  of  Christ,  p.  122. 


CHEISTIAN  DISCIPLESHIP  183 

tender  Mere  Angelique  was  with  sinners,  with  the 
ignorant  and  them  that  were  "  out  of  the  way,"  and  how 
keen  and  unsparing  she  was  with  herself  and  those  who 
she  knew  were  desirous  to  follow  in  Christ's  steps. 
Surely  it  is  of  no  use,  at  any  time,  to  persuade  people 
that  to  be  a  Christian  involves  no  pain,  no  self-sacrifice, 
no  parting  with  the  very  dearest  treasure.  Christians 
are  led  on  from  strength  to  strength,  but  at  no  time  of 
the  spiritual  life  can  it  be  possible  to  be  0/the  world  and 
yet  to  be  Christ's  disciple.  For  Christ,  so  tender,  so 
compassionate  to  the  multitude,  so  loving  to  His 
disciples,  had  a  very  exacting  standard  for  those 
disciples.  Our  Lord  does  expect  a  great  deal  from  those 
whom  He  calls  His  friends,  those  to  whom  He  gives  no 
less  a  gift  than  Himself. 

Surely  this  is  the  mistake  often  made  by  writers  of 
every  age.  They  take  the  warnings  to  the  Pharisees 
and  the  tender  words  to  the  sinners,  and  forget  that 
there  was  and  is  another  class  into  which  sinners  may 
come  if  they  will — His  Friends.  The  Holy  Communion 
is  surely  meant  for  the  disciples,  for  the  converted,  the 
self-surrendered.  The  Church  and  the  world  are  so 
hopelessly  entangled  that  it  is  difficult  to  see  where  one 
begins  and  the  other  ends,  but  in  the  early  days  when 
persecution  was  the  great  sifter,  and  to  be  a  member  of 
the  Church  might  cost  one  one's  life,  there  was  little 
need  to  warn  people  against  worldliness,  and  the 
Blessed  Sacrament  often  was  the  daily  food  of  the 
Church. 

There  is  no  question  of  rules.  The  particular  point 
which  gave  rise  to  the  book  could  be  decided  in  different 
ways  by  different  people.  The  principle  is  "in  the 
Lord."  A  ball  even  at  Louis  XIV.'s  Court  might  be 
attended  by  one  person  as  a  matter  of  duty ;  one  can 
quite  see  that  for  another  a  period  of  quiet  and  retreat 
was  absolutely  needful  before  and  after  Communion, 
and  that  a  third  might  be  obliged  to  withdraw  from  all 
such  amusements. 

The  controversy  was — not  this  or  that  petty  detail, 
but — whether  after  all  our  Lord's  words  meant  any- 


184     "LA  FKEQUENTE  COMMUNION" 

thing  when  He  said,  "Ye  cannot  serve  God  and 
Mammon/'1 

This  is  what  is  always  happening  in  every  age. 
Occasionally  it  becomes  easy  to  be  outwardly  religious. 
Devotion  became  quite  "selon  les  regies"  in  France  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  it  is  the  unfortunate  habit 
of  many  religious  people  to  accommodate  Christ's 
religion  to  the  particular  demands  made  by  fashionable 
society  on  the  leaders  of  religion.  In  every  age  it  is  the 
same — laxity  of  moral  standards  in  our  own  age  as  in 
"  Le  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV.";  love  of  money,  comfort,  as  in 
England  at  the  time  of  the  Evangelical  Revival,  and  so 
on.  And  always  some  are  raised  up  by  God  to  protest. 
Port  Royal  was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  voice  crying  out 
for  spiritual  religion ;  and  Arnauld's  book  was  the 
Manual  of  the  Port  Royalists.  The  Jesuits  at  once 
declared  themselves  against  La  Frdquente  Communion. 
One  of  the  Company  delivering  a  course  of  sermons 
took  occasion  to  denounce  it,  to  the  great  surprise  of 
his  hearers,  who  saw  no  particular  reason  for  so  much 
excitement,  as  the  Jesuits  were  not  even  mentioned  in  it. 

"There  must  be  something  which  hasn't  come  out 
yet,"  said  the  Marechal  de  Vitry,  "the  Fathers  are  not 
in  such  a  state  of  zeal  when  it's  a  simple  question  of  the 
Glory  of  God."  Naturally,  La  Frdquente  Communion 
only  sold  the  faster  ;  the  notice  of  a  second  edition  was 
fastened  to  the  door  of  the  Jesuit  church  before  Pere 
Nouet's  course  was  finished. 

Lancelot  tells  us  that  Pere  Nouet,  at  first,  seeing 
the  book  lying  on  the  table  of  the  Archbishop  of  Tours, 
took  it,  skimmed  it,  and  then  praised  it  warmly,  not 
seeing,  says  Claude  ironically,  that  the  credit  of  the 
Company,  which  concerned  him  more  than  the  cause 
of  God,  was  at  all  affected. 

The  Bishops  who  had  affixed  their  commendations 
of  the  book  by  no  means  felt  inclined  to  allow  these 
tergiversations  of  his  to  pass,  and  compelled  him  to 
sign  a  recantation  on  his  knees. 

The  Jesuits  were  always  quite  ready  to  throw  over 
1  See  Appendix,  Note  II. 


PKOPOSED  APPEAL  TO  EOME        185 

an  inconvenient  brother,  says  M.  d'Ormesson.  "  La 
facilite  qu'ils  ont  a  souffrir  ce  que  leurs  Peres  e"crivent 
est  pareille  a  celle  de  les  de"savouer  s'ils  ne  sont  pas  bien 


It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Company  of  Jesus  did 
not  submit  to  this  Episcopal  snub  more  meekly  than 
they  have  ever  been  accustomed  to  bend  to  the 
authority  of  Bishops.  By  various  manoeuvres  they 
succeeded  in  persuading  Anne  of  Austria  to  issue  an 
order  to  Antoine  Arnauld  and  M.  du  Barcos  (St 
Cyran's  nephew)  to  go  to  Rome  and  give  an  account 
of  their  doctrine.  But  France  was  not  ultramontane 
enough  to  bear  this,  and  the  Clergy,  the  "  Parlement," 
the  University,  the  Theological  Faculty,  and,  above  all, 
the  Sorbonne,  rose,  as  one  man,  to  remonstrate  on  such 
an  unheard-of  proceeding.  To  command  any  subject 
of  the  King  of  France  to  defend  his  works  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  France  ! 

Antoine  Arnauld  was  willing  to  go  to  Rome,  but  he 
was  warned  that  if  he  did  go  he  would  never  return. 

The  two  friends,  M.  du  Barcos  and  Antoine, 
retired  from  the  world.  The  Princess  de  Guemenee 
sheltered  the  first,  and  Arnauld  was  taken  care  of  by 
various  friends,  "  a  couvert,"  says  he,  "  sous  1'ombre  des 
ailes  de  Dieu."  The  Solitaires  did  all  they  could  to 
help  him,  and  De  Saci  particularly  tried  to  tone  down 
Arnauld's  strong  language  and  vehement  replies  to  his 
adversaries.  Sainte  Beuve  says:  "Ainsi  commen^a 
pour  lui  cette  vie  de  labeur  et  de  combat  dans  la  fuite, 
dans  la  persecution,  cette  guerre  de  plume  du  fond  des 
asiles."1 

Mere  Angelique's  own  letters  to  him  on  his  retire- 
ment deserve  quotation. 

"  A.  M.  ARNAULD  LE  DOCTEUR. 

"  If  you  could  see,  my  dearest  Father,  what 
is  in  my  heart  and  mind,  you  would  know  that  day  and 
night  I  am  continually  thinking  of  you  ;  and  although 
it  is  not  without  deep  feelings  of  affection  and  of  grief 

1  Histoire  de  Port  Roy  al^  vol.  ii.,  p.  188. 


186     "LA  FK^QUENTE  COMMUNION" 

for  our  separation^  nevertheless  the  perception  I  have  of 
the  great,  the  peculiar  grace  that  God  gives  us  in  suffering 
for  truth  and  in  trying  to  minister  to  the  souls  which  He 
has  purchased  by  His  Blood,  overcomes  all  my  feelings  ; 
so  that  I  think  willingly  only  of  the  extreme  and  burn- 
ing desire  I  have  that  you  should  bear  this  trial  in  a 
Christian  and  holy  manner,  so  that  by  bearing  persecu- 
tion in  this  way,  you  may  teach  the  faithful  the  way  of 
penitence,  more  worthily  than  you  have  taught  it  in 
theory  by  your  book.  I  know,  my  very  dear  Father, 
that  you  wish  this,  but  in  such  stormy  trials  our  souls 
are  often  distracted ;  and  the  malicious  spirit,  who  is 
more  on  the  alert  than  ever  to  snatch  from  us  fruits 
which  such  rare  and  important  opportunities  should 
produce,  tries  to  distract  us.  You  have  one  great 
happiness  which  few  afflicted  people  have,  you  have  so 
many  who  watch  over  you,  ...  so  that  you  need  only 
pray  to  God  and  offer  yourself  incessantly  as  a  sacrifice 
to  His  glory  and  the  good  of  His  Church. 

"  Divine  Providence  has  willed  that  your  suffering 
should  begin  in  the  days  when  the  Church  commemor- 
ates t the  Suffering  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ:  I  say 
*  begin,'  for  I  do  not  see  when  it  will  end.  But  in  pro- 
portion as  it  is  long,  so  you  will  be  happy.  I  should  be 
too  happy  if  I  might  be  with  you  and  wait  on  you.  We 
will  always  do  so  in  spirit  with  more  affection  than  I 
can  express. 

"All  our  Sisters  say  the  same,  not  only  the  five 
[Arnaulds]  but  all  the  others  who  are  also  converted 
and  with  all  their  hearts  pray  for  you.  I  am  your 
daughter,  your  sister,  and  your  mother.  May  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  be  your  strength,  your  hope,  your  rest,  and 
your  only  love  ;  may  He  dwell  in  your  mind  wholly,  and 
separate  it  from  earthly  things.  Forgive  my  extreme 
affection.  Mother  Agnes  sends  you  two  small  books 
which  you  can  always  carry  about  with  you,  as  she  fears 
you  may  not  conveniently  carry  a  breviary ;  so  you  will 
have  [in  these]  the  chief  part.  I  entreat  you  to  pray  as 
often  as  you  can,  and  to  ask  from  God  my  conversion." 

A  little  later  she  says  : — 

"  I  dare  to  entreat  you,  my  dear  one,  never  to  take 
up  your  pen  or  put  it  down  without  prayer.  I  am  sure 
you  do  so  ;  but  as  I  notice  that  my  hastiness  makes  me 
often  omit  it  even  in  my  most  important  actions,  I  fear 


APPROVED  BY  SERIOUS  CHRISTIANS  187 

the  same  may  happen  to  you.  I  must  also  beg  you  to 
read  the  New  and  the  Old  Testament  every  day  ;  for  I 
always  am  afraid  that  you  do  not  know  Holy  Scripture 
sufficiently,  and  that  your  numerous  occupations  may 
make  you  forget  to  read  it.  Now  it  seems  to  me  that 
you  ought  no  more  to  omit  giving  this  holy  food  to  your 
soul  than  food  to  your  body ;  no?>  work,  however 
pressing,  may  dispense  you  from  that." 

Shortly  after  his  retirement  Arnauld  published  a 
sort  of  Apologia,  in  the  form  of  a  Declaration  en  forme 
de  Testament  des  ve'ritables  dispositions  de  mon  dme  dans 
toutes  les  rencontres  importants  de  ma  vie.  In  this  he 
justifies  his  position  at  some  length.  He  maintains 
that  God  forgives  sins  to  the  converted,  and  he  explains 
what  he  means  by  false  penitents  in  terms  which  one 
would  think  would  be  acceptable  to  all  Catholics. 
'  Those  are  miserably  deceived  who  think  they  can  be 
good  Christians  at  intervals  of  days  or  hours,  and 
whose  life  is  in  addition  a  continual  round  of  sins  and 
confessions." 

As  Sainte  Beuve  says,  the  teaching  of  La  Fre'quente 
Communion  is  approved  by  any  and  all  who  take 
Christianity  at  all  seriously,  however  prejudiced  they 
may  be  against  Jansenism. 

The  storm  raised  by  La  Fre'quente  Communion  fell 
to  some  extent  on  Port  Royal.  In  1644  a  visitation 
was  ordered  and  carried  out,  with  the  result  that  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris  wrote  to  the  Superior  that  his 
visitors  had  found  only  piety  and  virtue  in  the  House. 

Agnes  writes  to  Antoine  Arnauld  :  "  There  is  a  proof 
that  God's  mercy  and  grace  will  follow  us  as  they  have 
gone  before  us  and  with  us  :  it  will  be  necessary  to 
conclude  that  good  doctrine  has  been  taught  us,  since 
no  bad  doctrine  has  been  found." 

It  must  be  noticed,  by  the  way,  that  the  much 
denounced  book  has  never  been  condemned  at  Rome. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   FRONDE   (1649-1653) 

THE  time  of  peace  which  succeeded  the  return  to  Port 
Royal  des  Champs  was  broken  by  the  civil  war  known 
as  the  Fronde.  Ang£lique  was  elected  Abbess  in 
October  1646;  and  she  who,  as  the  historian  of  Port 
Royal  says,  had  been  ever  ready  to  close  her  guest- 
room, was  now  equally  ready  to  open  her  doors  to  all 
who  needed  shelter.  It  was  a  miserable  time,  the 
Fronde — so  called  from  the  witty  remark  of  one 
Bachaumont.  "  Bachaumont  took  it  into  his  head 
to  say  one  day  jokingly  that  the  Parlement  was  just 
like  schoolboys  who  shot  with  their  slings  (qmfrondenf] 
in  the  Paris  gutters,  running  to  get  out  of  the  way 
when  the  policeman  appears,  and  flocking  together 
when  he  is  no  more  to  be  seen." 

It  was  a  sudden  outburst  of  the  nobles  and  the 
Parlement  of  Paris  against  the  power  of  the  King,  but 
it  was  not  a  national  movement,  and  the  nobles  of 
France  were  unfit  to  be  the  leaders  of  a  popular  reform. 
As  one  reads  the  Memoirs  of  de  Retz,  or  of  Madame 
de  Motteville,  La  Grande  Mademoiselle,  one  is  struck 
with  the  absence  of  all  real  patriotism  in  any  of  the 
leaders,  Cond£,  or  De  Retz,  or  any  one  else.1  Only  in 
some  of  the  Gens  de  la  Robe,  in  such  people  as 
Mathieu  Mol£,  is  there  anything  corresponding  to  the 
sturdy  resistance,  loyalty  to  principle,  the  desire  for 
public  good,  which  flamed  in  the  best  Puritans  and 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  III. 


OPPRESSIVE  TAXATION  189 

Cavaliers  alike  in  England.  Each  was  for  himself  in 
France,  so  far  as  the  nobles  were  concerned.  It  hardly 
comes  within  the  scope  of  this  book  to  describe  what 
Ranke  calls  the  burlesque  war  of  the  Fronde,  but, 
briefly,  it  arose  from  the  resistance  of  the  Parlement  of 
Paris  to  certain  oppressive  taxes  which  Emeri,  the 
controller-general  or  head  of  all  the  finances  of  France, 
had  tried  to  impose. 

Anne  of  Austria  was  entirely  unable  to  grasp  the 
situation.  For  her  the  Gens  de  la  Robe  were  mere 
4 'canaille,"  and  after  her  order  to  arrest  the  leading 
magistrate  had  roused  the  populace  to  fury,  it  needed  a 
few  words  from  Henrietta  Maria  to  bring  before  her 
the  real  peril  and  perplexity  of  the  time.  The  popular 
idol  of  the  hour,  Broussel,  had  to  be  released.  Madame 
de  Motteville  says:  "Jamais  triomphe  du  roi  oil 
d'Empereur  Remain  n'a  et6  plus  grand  que  celui  de  ce 
pauvre  petit  homme,  qui  n'avait  rien  de  recommandable 
que  d'etre  entete  du  bien  public  et  de  la  haine  des 
impots,"  words  which  show  how  incapable  of  any 
comprehension  of  the  needs  and  miseries  of  France  was 
any  one  connected  with  the  Court. 

Anne  was  obliged  to  yield,  and  matters  went  no 
better  when  Conde,  the  great  Conde",  the  popular  hero 
and  victorious  general,  returned ;  if  he  disliked  the 
Parlement,  he  also  detested  Mazarin,  and  his  support 
of  the  Court  was  remarkably  cold. 

Then  came  the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  the  last  act  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  scarcely  heeded  amidst  the 
furious  excitements  into  which  the  country  was  plunged. 

In  fact,  Germany  was  not  a  very  interesting  or 
familiar  country  to  France,  nor  was  the  safety  of  the 
German  Protestants  a  matter  of  peculiar  interest  to 
the  ordinary  French  Catholic.  The  diminution  of 
taxation  was  the  burning  question.  Mazarin  secured 
Conde"  and  the  King's  uncle,  Gaston,  Duke  of  Orleans  ; 
the  Court  took  refuge  in  St  Germain,  and  the  deluded 
Parisians  allowed  themselves  to  be  the  tools  of  the 
nobles,  who  for  various  causes  chose  to  embrace  the 
side  of  the  Parlement. 


190  THE  FEONDE 

One  of  the  most  fascinating  of  the  great  ladies 
connected  with  Port  Royal,  Conde's  sister,  Madame  de 
Longueville,  threw  herself  into  the  cause,  as  did  her 
husband,  and  her  lover,  the  famous  Due  de  la 
Rochefoucauld,  author  of  the  well-known  maxims.  Of 
her,  more  later. 

By  degrees  the  Parlement  saw  how  little  could  be 
hoped  for  from  the  nobles  ;  how,  to  quote  Dean  Kitchin, 
"  no  real  strength  or  nobleness  lay  behind  this  frivolous 
bravery  and  gallantry;  the  great  Cardinal  Richelieu 
had  destroyed  all  that  was  strong  and  had  debauched 
the  rest,  by  leaving  them  position  without  power."1 

Through  the  efforts  of  Mathieu  Mole,  the  President 
of  the  Parlement,  a  temporary  peace  was  signed  in 
1649.  So  closed  the  first  war  of  the  Fronde.2 

Port  Royal  at  Paris  and  also  in  the  country  gave 
shelter  to  many  wanderers,  to  refugees  from  other 
convents  ;  and  in  several  instances  the  prejudices  which 
had  been  excited  against  Port  Royal  were  considerably 
modified.  Some  of  the  Sisters  in  Port  Royal  de  Paris 
were  lodged  during  the  disturbances  in  a  house  outside 
the  city  belonging  to  a  well-known  friend  of  Port  Royal, 
M.  de  Bernieres,  Maitre  des  Requites.  A  solemn 
procession  of  the  departing  nuns  was  formed,  and  they 
were  accompanied  to  their  new  home  by  M.  Le  Nain, 
the  father  of  the  historian,  M.  de  Tillemont,  and  by 
M.  de  Bernieres.  In  profound  silence  they  departed, 
many  not  knowing  in  the  least  where  they  were  to  go. 
For  a  few  hours  the  little  troop  took  refuge  in  M.  de 
Berniere's  house,  while  their  own  new  abode  was  being 
prepared.  They  said  their  Hours  and  sewed  diligently 
as  if  they  were  still  in  their  cloister.  In  the  evening 
they  departed,  and  the  chapel  was  soon  arranged,  in 
which  M.  Singlin  often  preached.  Some,  however, 
were  left  in  the  house  in  the  Faubourg  St  Jacques,  for 
many  felt  that  it  would  be  wrong  to  leave  the  house  of 

1  Cf.  Henri  Martin,  Histoire  de  France,  vol.  iv. 

2  That  the  Port  Royalists  were  on  the  side  of  the  Fronde  has  always 
been  a  favourite  accusation,  absolutely  without  foundation,  but  constantly 
repeated. 


DE  SACFS  COLDNESS  191 

prayer  quite  deserted.  Marie  des  Anges  and  Anne 
Eugenie  were  of  these,  and  the  youngest  of  the  Arnauld 
sisters,  Madeleine. 

M.  Sing-Jin  was  also  in  the  house,  and  all  went  on 
quietly  and  regularly  amidst  the  frequent  disturbances. 
"  Holy  hands  lifted  up  in  prayer  continually." 

The  misery  was  awful  among  the  peasantry. 
Angelique  writes  from  Port  Royal  des  Champs  : — 

"  This  poor  country  is  in  a  horrible  state,  it  is  perfectly 
pitiable.  The  soldiers  shelter  themselves  in  farms, 
make  the  people  thresh  the  corn,  and  do  not  give  a 
grain  of  it  to  the  wretched  masters,  who  beg  for  a  little 
by  way  of  charity,  that  it  may  be  ground.  There  is  no 
ploughing,  there  are  no  more  horses,  and  everything  is 
pillaged. 

"God  wills  that  we  should  learn  to  live  as  poor 
people^  We  shall  be^ blessed  if  He  gives  us  the  grace 
to  receive  this  grace." 

The  first  war  of  the  Fronde  had  run  its  brief  course, 
and  for  a  while  peace  was  restored.  De  Saci  was  at 
last  ordained  priest  at  the  Ember-tide  of  December 
1648,  but  with  that  strange  shrinking  from  holy 
privileges  which  the  Port  Royalists  seemed  to  have 
carried  to  excess,  he  did  not  celebrate  Mass  until  the 
Festival  of  the  Conversion  of  St  Paul,  1649.  M. 
Singlin,  who  had  more  than  enough  on  his  hands  just 
then,  wished  to  entrust  the  spiritual  direction  of  Port 
Royal  des  Champs  to  M.  de  Saci.  Several  people  were 
extremely  averse  to  this  idea — Fontaine,  for  instance, 
who  implored  M.  Singlin  to  allow  him  to  continue  to 
resort  to  Antoine  Arnauld,  who  was,  as  we  know, 
frequently  at  Port  Royal.  Somehow  or  other  M.  de 
Saci's  apparent  coldness  frightened  the  Solitaires,  for 
he  was  reserved  on  principle,  and  though  winningness 
and  graciousness  of  manner  and,  above  all,  the  love  of 
God  manifesting  itself  in  words  and  deeds,  are  more 
after  the  manner  of  the  Pastor  Pastorum,  yet  it  is  an 
undoubted  fact  that  many  spiritual  guides  have  culti- 
vated great  reserve  and  coldness,  at  any  rate  in  their 
first  relations  with  their  penitents. 


192  THE  FEONDE 

M.  de  Saci  was,  like  St  Cyran,  a  born  director. 
"  He  was  convinced  in  the  very  depths  of  his  heart  that 
without  God  no  work  could  be  done  in  the  soul;  it 
was  absolutely  necessary  that  He  should  begin,  and 
pastors  should  think  only  of  Him  without  anxiety  or 
marring  of  His  work.  Their  labour  should  be  to 
recognise  the  traces  of  Him  in  the  soul."  There  is 
little  of  the  supposed  pride  of  so-called  sacerdotalism 
here! 

M.  Le  Maitre,  that  holy  and  humble  man  of  heart, 
found  it  extremely  difficult  to  put  himself  under  his 
brother's  direction.  Already  De  Sericourt  and  Mme. 
Le  Maitre  had  taken  him  for  their  director,  but  it  was 
a  difficult  task  for  Antoine  Le  Maitre  to  yield  his  will 
and  submit  to  be  guided. 

He  seems  to  have  dreaded  his  brother's  coldness 
and  to  have  disliked  the  reversal  of  their  normal 
positions. 

M.  Singlin  did  not  press  matters,  but  after  a  while 
he  paid  a  visit  to  Port  Royal,  and  he  and  M.  Le  Maitre 
had  a  long  talk  which  ended  in  the  complete  submission 
of  that  lofty,  generous  soul. 

As  Singlin  left  Le  Maitre,  he  said  : — 

"  Come,  I  shall  be  more  and  more  certain  of  what 
God  will  ask  of  you  and  I  shall  be  more  at  liberty  to 
tell  you  of  it,  when  you  are  directed  by  a  more  clear 
sighted  person  than  I.  I  am  now  going  to  the  Altar  to 
say  Mass,  and  I  shall  offer  it  chiefly  as  an  act  of 
gratitude  to  God  for  the  grace  He  has  given  you,  for  I 
feel  as  if  it  were  given  to  me,  since  you  needed  it 
to  serve  Him,  and  I  have  wished  for  it  so  long." 
{Fontaine,  p.  367.) 

It  is  a  touching  picture,  the  mother,  the  brothers 
kneeling  one  by  one  at  the  feet  of  the  still  youthful 
priest,  so  grave,  apparently  so  cold,  yet  so  full  of 
wisdom  ;  one  of  those  whom  a  writer  of  our  own  day  has 
thus  described : — 

"The  innocent  are  those  who  have  been  true  to  the 
divine  ideals,  through  which  in  youth  the  beauty  of 
holiness  flashes  on  the  soul,  content  to  take  the  evil  of 


M.   DE  LUINES  193 

the  world  upon  authority  till  time  has  shewn  them  its 
malignity  without  imparting-  its  contagion ;  and  there- 
fore able  in  the  end  to  say,  '  I  have  more  understanding 
than  my  teachers,  for  Thy  testimonies  are  my  study. 
I  am  wiser  than  the  aged ;  because  I  keep  Thy 
commandments." 

There  are  several  such  among  our  Port  Royalists, 
notably  Lancelot,  Fontaine,  and  De  Saci. 

Fontaine  goes  on  to  say  that  all  M.  Le  Maitre's 
dislike  vanished  away,  and  in  an  outburst  of  brotherly 
affection  he  copied  out  an  extract  from  St  Chrysostom, 
which  he  called  "  Le  Portrait  de  Famine"  Chre"tienne 
et  spirituelle,"  which  he  sent  to  his  severe  and  austere 
brother,  with  a  few  lines  of  poetry. 

De  Saci's  reply  was  anything  but  cold.  Evidently 
he  was  touched  by  the  warm  affection  of  M.  Le  Maitre, 
and  he  hastened  to  write  to  the  younger  Angelique, 
daughter  of  M.  d'Andilly,  and  to  enclose  Le  Maitre's 
little  gift. 

Port  Royal  gained  many  recruits  to  the  band  of  the 
Solitaires,  and  we  see  the  first  beginnings  of  the  brief 
connection  which  the  Abbey  had  with  the  great  and 
powerful  of  this  world.  The  Due  de  Luines  and  his 
wife  resolved  to  give  themselves  to  a  life  of  prayer  and 
devotion.  He  and  his  wife,  who  was  a  daughter  of  the 
Chancellor  Seguier,  built  a  house  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Port  Royal,  the  Chateau  de  Vaumaurier.  He  was 
the  son  of  the  Connetable  de  Luines,  the  favourite 
of  Louis  XIII.,  who  died  in  1621,  and  his  mother 
became  the  Duchesse  de  Chevreuse,  the  well-known 
friend  of  Anne  of  Austria,  hated  by  Richelieu  and 
notorious  for  her  intrigues. 

The  Duke  and  Duchess  built  the  Chateau  de 
Vaumaurier  only  a  year  before  the  young  Duchess,  a 
girl  of  twenty-seven,  died.  She  had  lived  a  pure  and 
holy  life  in  the  midst  of  distractions  and  temptations  at 
the  Court,  and  she  seems  to  have  pined  for  Vaumaurier 
and  for  Port  Royal.  Probably  she  had  been  introduced 

1  Illingworth,  University  Sermons. 

N 


194  THE  FEONDE 

to  Mere  Angelique  by  the  Queen  of  Poland,  whose  god- 
daughter she  was.  She  died  in  her  confinement,  very 
soon  after  receiving  a  translation  of  some  portions  of 
St  Augustine  made  for  her  by  M.  Le  Maitre.  The 
twins  who  were  born  on  this  sad  day,  September  1 3th, 
1651,  only  survived  their  mother  a  year;  but  she  left 
two  daughters  as  well  as  her  son  the  Due  de  Chevreuse, 
who,  with  his  brother-in-law  the  Due  de  Beauvilliers, 
were  two  of  Fenelon's  most  distinguished  spiritual 
children.1  The  son  was  worthy  of  his  mother. 

Mme.  de  Luines  left  many  notes  of  resolutions 
and  pious  reflections.  'We  must,"  said  she,  "love 
solitude  in  order  to  cure  ourselves  of  our  wounds, 
and  we  must  endure  visits  so  as  not  to  wound  our 
neighbours."  She  says,  in  one  of  her  notes,  that 
she  gave  herself  up  to  the  service  of  God  in  the  great 
world. 

M.  Singlin  was  with  her  when  she  was  dying.  "He 
divided  his  loving  care  between  the  dying  woman  and 
the  husband,  who  was  broken-hearted  at  the  unlooked- 
for  loss  of  his  wife."  She  had  written  to  M.  Singlin  a 
few  days  before,  in  sorrow  for  the  death  of  her  mother 
and  of  her  eldest  son :  "  Dieu  m'enterre  ceux  qui 
faisoient  la  consolation  de  ma  vie,  mais  il  le  doit  lui- 
meme  tenir  lieu  de  toutes  choses."  He  had  helped  her 
and  taught  her  so  much,  and  aided  her  to  overcome 
perplexity  and  scruples,  which  are  so  often  the  torment 
of  innocent  and  holy  souls.  Her  last  words  were : 
"  Creez  en  moi  un  cceur  nouveau,  O  mon  Dieu." 

The  necrology  says  in  her  epitaph  (she  was  buried 
at  Port  Royal),  "In  marriage  she  kept  the  virgin's  heart, 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  great  world,  the  '  recollection '  of 
the  hermit."  The  epitaph  ends  with  the  words  which 
find  an  echo  in  so  many  hearts,  "  Etiam,  Veni  Domine 
Jesu,"  and  then  follow  some  touching  words  on  the 
twins,  Paul  and  Theresa,  whose  birth  cost  their  mother 
her  life. 

Mere  Angelique  writes  in  one  of  her  frequent  letters 

1  See  St  Simon,  and  also,  for  a  short  and  clear  account  of  the  Due  de 
Chevreuse's  character,  Lord  St  Cyres's  admirable  book  on  "  Fenelon." 


M.   DE  SINGLIN  195 

to  Marie  Gonzague,  the  Queen  of  Poland,  whose  god- 
daughter Mme.  de  Luines  was  : — 

"Your  Majesty  knows  that  she  (Mme.  de  Luines) 
had  feared  God  from  her  childhood,  but  one  year  God 
touched  her  in  an  overwhelming-  way  through  the 
example  of  her  husband,  so  that  she  began  as  it  were  a 
completely  new  life,  and  then  formed  together  with  her 
husband  the  resolution  to  leave  the  great  world  and 
retire  somewhere  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Port  Royal." 

M.  de  Luines  persisted  in  this  way  of  life  for  some 
time,  and  the  house  was  finished  just  before  the  second 
war  of  the  Fronde.1  But  before  the  war  broke  out 
there  were  several  events  which  must  be  recorded. 
The  youngest  of  the  Arnauld  sisters — Madeleine — died, 
after  long  years  of  infirmity  and  unceasing  prayer. 

The  Solitaires  were  left  alone  by  the  secular  powers 
and  increased  in  numbers,  and  yet,  as  Fontaine  says, 
there  was  no  slackness  of  devotion,  no  diminution  in  the 
love  for  retirement.  Fontaine  has  some  touching  pages 
of  description  of  the  life  of  labour  and  of  prayer.  "  I 
was  struck  by  the  providence  of  God,"  he  says,  "and 
the  loving  care  which  He  had  for  the  house  (Port  Royal) 
in  giving  it  gardeners,  carpenters,  locksmiths,  glaziers, 
shoemakers,  and  even  porters  and  candlemakers,  filling 
up  Himself  by  His  own  care  the  most  insignificant,  as 
He  filled  the  most  important  offices,  such  as  those  of 
doctors  and  surgeons." 

It  is  a  wonderful  result  of  St  Cyran's  teaching  and 
influence  and  of  the  effect  that  La  Frequente  Communion 
and  M.  Singlin's  sermons  produced,  that  so  many  men, 
bound  by  no  vows  and  under  no  rule,  should  have  lived 
and  prayed  and  worked  together  for  so  long.  M. 
Singlin  was  now  much  en  evidence  ;  his  sermons  attracted 
attention,  and  yet  it  was  not  that  he  was  endowed  with 
extraordinary  gifts  or  graces.  But  he  possessed 
simplicity  and  directness,  and,  above  all,  that  sense  of  a 
real  message  which  was  his  to  deliver,  which  in  all  ages 
attracts  men  and  women.  His  sermons  became  well 


He  married  twice  afterwards. 


196  THE  FEONDE 

known  and  drew  fashionable  congregations.  One  day, 
the  25th  of  August  1649  (St  Augustine's  Day),  M. 
Singlin  preached  before  a  congregation  among  which 
were  several  Bishops  and  dignitaries,  the  Duke  de 
Liancourt  (soon  to  be  identified  with  Port  Royal  in  a 
rather  unpleasant  fashion),  and  others.  M.  Singlin's 
sermon  was  wise  and  moderate,  according  to  M. 
Liancourt,  but,  as  was  natural  on  St  Augustine's  Day, 
he  spoke  of  grace,  of  penitence,  of  vocation  for  holy 
offices.  On  the  22nd  of  September,  the  Archbishop 
of  Paris *  forbade  M.  Singlin  to  preach.  The  preacher 
wrote  to  the  Archbishop  a  letter,  too  long  to  be  given 
here,  which  breathes  humility  and  respect,  pointing  out 
that  not  a  word  in  the  debated  sermon  was  in  any 
way  contrary  to  Catholic  Truth.  He  had  been,  he  said, 
specially  careful  to  avoid  anything  which  had  the 
appearance  of  a  manifesto.  The  Archbishop  was 
amenable  to  reason,  and  perceiving  that  he  had  been 
over  hasty,  withdrew  the  prohibition,  and  even  came 
to  Port  Royal  to  hear  M.  Singlin  and  was  extremely 
pleasant  to  everybody,  including  Mme.  d'Aumont,  one 
of  the  holy  women  who  in  the  days  of  their  widowhood 
betook  themselves  to  a  life  of  prayer  at  Port  Royal. 
Her  husband,  a  general  in  the  Army,  died  in  1644, 
and  she  found  a  settled  home  in  Port  Royal  in  1646, 
and  for  this  Community  she  did  a  great  deal ;  on  one 
particular  day  she  was  able  to  lend  M.  de  Paris  her 
carriage,  some  accident  having  happened  to  his  own. 
So  again  Port  Royal  basked  in  ecclesiastical  favour. 

Mere  Angelique's  letter  to  the  Archbishop  on  the 
subject  of  M.  Singlin's  inhibition  is  worth  giving  : — 

"  Monseigneur,  I  venture  to  assure  myself  that  as 
you  have  been  pleased  to  treat  me  with  extreme  kind- 
ness, it  will  not  be  offensive  to  you  that  I  write  to  you 
now  in  the  sorrow  in  which  I  am  and  the  distress  with 
which  I  hear  what  has  been  told  you  about  M.  Singlin, 
a  persecution  which  exceeds  all  that  have  been  waged 
against  us  until  now.  When  all  the  great  ones  of  the 
earth  were  stirred  up  against  us,  I  was  but  little  moved, 

1  Jean  Frangois  de  Gondi. 


DEATH   OF  M.    PALLU  197 

knowing  that  your  fatherly  kindness  was  ever  favour- 
able to  us,  and  so  I  gave  no  credence  to  what  was  said 
to  our  disadvantage. 

"  But  now  that  God  has  permitted  you  (I  think  on 
account  of  my  sins)  to  give  credence  to  what  has  been 
written  against  M.  Singlin,  I  ^  confess  to  you,  Mon- 
seigneur, that  I  am  more  afflicted  than  I  have  ever 
been  in  all  we  have  borne  until  now.  I  am  not  fit  to 
bear  witness  to  the  truth  of  his  teaching,  but  so  many 
people  of  worth,  of  learning,  of  uprightness,  who  have 
been  present  at  his  sermons  could  do  so ;  and  I  trust, 
Monseigneur,  that  you  will  believe  so  many  irreproach- 
able witnesses,  rather  than  ill-disposed  people  who  have 
wished  to  deceive  you,  as  you  were  not  in  touch^with  us. 
I  beg  you  very  humbly,  Monseigneur,  to  continue  the 
consequences  of  your  goodness  which  ever  protected  us, 
and  which  laid  me  under  the  double  obligation  of  being 
with  as  much  gratitude  as  duty  in  every  possible  respect, 

"Yours,  etc." 

In  the  years  between  the  two  wars  of  the  Fronde, 
losses  fell  on  Port  Royal.  M.  Pallu,  the  beloved  doctor, 
so  bright,  so  kind,  so  human,  died.  Mere  Angelique 
writes : — 

"  I  was  quite  sure,  dearest  Sister,  that  you  would 
be  much  grieved  by  the  death  of  our  good  M.  Pallu. 
It  is  true  that  it  is  of  its  kind  an  irreparable  loss,  but 
after  all  we  must  thank  God  for  leaving  him  with  us  so 
long,  and  we  must  rejoice  at  the  happiness  which  was 
his  in  that  he  died  persevering  in  holy  penitence,  in  the 
perfecting  of  which  he  always  increased  since  God  gave 
him  grace  to  begin  it.  He  was  the  kindly  brother  of 
all  poor  people." 

M.  de  S£ricourt,  the  soldier  brother  of  M.  le  Maitre 
and  M.  de  Saci,  who  joined  the  Solitaires  and  who  came 
to  Port  Royal  in  1637,  died  in  1650.  He  left  all  his 
worldly  possessions  to  his  two  brothers,  beseeching 
them  not  to  be  displeased,  for  he  knew  well  that  they 
looked  on  earthly  possessions  in  the  light  of  heavy 
burdens. 

They  were  a  remarkable  trio,  these  brothers.  One 
by  one  they  had  renounced  their  respective  professions, 


198  THE  FEONDE 

in  which  they  were  all  doing  well,  to  take  up  the  life  of 
prayer  and  penitence.  All  were  St  Cyran's  spiritual 
children.  Le  Maitre  and  De  Saci  felt  this  break  in 
their  brotherhood  most  deeply.  De  Saci,  it  is  said  in 
the  Histoire  de  Port  Royal,  looked  on  De  Sericourt  as 
St  Bernard  did  on  his  brother  Gerard.  De  Sericourt 
had  been  ill  for  eighteen  months,  and  "bore  his  suffer- 
ings most  patiently,"  wrote  Mere  Angelique  of  her 
nephew,  observing  that  she  had  another  nephew,  also 
named  Simon,  who  was  still  in  the  world.  This  was 
M.  d'Andilly's  second  son,  who  was  destined  to  rise  to 
considerable  eminence.  The  Port  Royalists  never 
learnt  to  look  on  the  world  as  anything  more  than  a 
possible  but  not  probable  place  "pour  faire  son  salut." 
And  indeed  one  feels  that  here  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Catholic  Church  prevailed  far  too  much  individualism, 
too  little  sense  of  corporate  Church  life. 

His  mother  followed  M.  de  Sericourt  in  1651. 
Sister  Catherine  de  Saint  Jean  had  been  a  professed 
sister  since  1644,  but  had  in  reality  led  the  life  of  a 
religious  ever  since  her  separation  from  her  husband. 
From  her  deathbed  she  wrote  a  touching  letter  to  her 
former  pupil,  Mademoiselle  de  Longueville.  This  lady 
was  on  bad  terms  with  her  young  stepmother  ;  from  her 
Memoirs,  written  after  she  became  Duchesse  de  Nemours, 
it  does  not  appear  that  she  was  ever  a  very  amiable 
person.  It  shows  the  consideration  in  which  Madame 
Le  Maitre  was  held,  that  for  a  year  or  two  she  had  acted 
as  governess  to  Mademoiselle  de  Longueville,  whose 
mother  had  always  been  in  relations  with  Port  Royal. 

Antoine  Arnauld  wrote  an  account  of  his  sister's 
death  to  Mere  Agnes.  It  is  very  touching  and  beautiful 
to  read  how  in  her  dying  moments  Catherine  turned  to 
her  son,  M.  de  Saci,  and  for  some  short  time  besought 
his  assistance  as  a  priest.  He  heard  her  confession  (he 
had  been  her  confessor)  and  gave  her  the  last  Sacra- 
ments. It  must  have  been  a  consolation  to  them  both, 
one  of  those  supreme  moments  when  all  earthly  ties  and 
relationships  are  forgotten  and  souls  meet  in  Christ. 

"  What  have  I  done,"  she  murmured,  "  to  have  such  a 


ANG^LIQUE'S  EETURN  TO  PORT  EOYAL  199 

son  ?  "  When  all  was  over,  M.  de  Saci  knelt  for  a  long 
time  in  front  of  the  Altar,  and  then  rose  up  and  went 
about  the  sad  duties  with  calmness.  He  had  stood  in  a 
unique  relation  to  his  mother,  and  no  doubt  had  helped 
her  in  her  moments  of  agony. 

Now  he  yielded  her  up  with  that  perfect  resignation 
to  God's  will  which  all  the  Port  Royalists  made  more 
or  less  their  special  grace  and  endeavour — they  echoed 
St  Paul's  words  which  Antoine  Arnauld  quoted  in  his 
letter  to  Agnes :  "Sive  vivimus,  sive  morimur,  Domini 
sumus." 

Angelique  was  re-elected  Abbess  soon  after  the 
death  of  Mme.  de  Luines,  and  returned  to  her  beloved 
Port  Royal  des  Champs,  where  she  was  joyfully  received. 
She  set  to  work  on  some  needful  repairs,  and  the  Due  de 
Luines  and  M.  du  Gue  de  Bagnols  took  upon  themselves 
the  whole  expense  of  these  additions  and,  what  was 
perhaps  equally  necessary,  the  oversight  of  the  workmen. 

Port  Royal  was  never  left  long  in  peace.  The  second 
war  of  the  Fronde,  known  generally  as  the  "  Guerre 
des  Princes,"  broke  out,  and  the  nuns  were  all  sent  to 
Paris.  Angelique  sheltered  many  fugitive  nuns  who 
were  obliged  to  fly  ;  amongst  these  there  was  a  poor 
girl  who  had  fallen  ill  of  smallpox.  Angelique,  finding 
that  the  young  nun  had  nowhere  to  go,  had  her  nursed 
and  tended  until  she  was  well. 

Angelique  says : — 

"We  have  had  altogether  visits  from  about  four 
hundred  religious — a  singular  providence.  We  have 
had  a  little  additional  work  on  account  of  these  visits, 
but  mercifully  He  has  kept  us  from  all  distractions,  for 
these  visits  have  given  us  opportunities  of  realising  our 
obligations  to  God." 

In  the  meantime  the  "Solitaires"  with  the  Due  de 
Luines  at  their  head  formed  themselves  into  a  guard, 
and  drilled  and  prayed  and  worked  in  a  way  which  to 
them  recalled  Nehemiah  guarding  Jerusalem,  and  perhaps 
reminds  us  of  Cromwell's  soldiers.  M.  de  Saci  said 
Mass  every  day ;  all  the  Offices  were  said  and  the 


200  THE   FRONDE 

religious  exercises  were  performed  as  usual.  M.  de 
Saci,  however,  was  very  unhappy ;  he  could  not  endure 
the  thought  that  it  was  possible  that  blood  might  be 
shed  by  these  penitents,  and  great  must  have  been  his 
relief  when  the  miserable  war  was  ended  in  October 

1653- 

There  was  a  great  outbreak  of  sickness  at  Port 
Royal  at  this  time,  and  Antoine  Arnauld  and  M.  de 
Saci  devoted  themselves  to  the  care  of  the  stricken  with 
the  devotion  one  would  naturally  expect  from  them. 

The  physician  who  had  succeeded  M.  Pallu,  M. 
Hamon,  who  was  to  be  so  dear  and  devoted  a  friend  to 
Port  Royal  in  its  most  unhappy  days,  was  by  no  means 
a  popular  doctor  at  first,  and  a  sort  of  cabal  arose  against 
him  of  which  it  is  rather  amusing  to  read.  Even  the 
Port  Royal  Solitaires  were  human. 

By  degrees,  however,  due  in  part  to  M.  de  Saci's 
efforts  for  peace,  and  to  M.  Hamon  himself,  the  good 
doctor  became  the  well-beloved  physician. 

Jean  Hamon  was  born  in  1617,  in  Normandy.  He 
was  an  extremely  well-educated  person.  He  knew  a 
great  deal  about  literature,  and  was  a  good  linguist  as 
well  as  a  good  classical  scholar. 

He  tells  us  of  himself  that,  when  he  was  a  small  boy, 
he  was  fond  of  aphorisms,  and  that  the  Book  of  Proverbs 
pleased  him  exceedingly.  That  love  of  wise  sentences 
never  forsook  him. 

He  seems  to  have  been  a  successful  doctor,  and  to 
have  led  a  useful  and  virtuous  life  up  to  the  age  of 
thirty-one,  when  to  him  came  a  call  to  a  higher,  an 
absolutely  unworldly  life. 

His  parish  priest,  M.  Hamel,  was  a  great  aid  to  M. 
Hamon  ;  little  by  little  he  felt  that  the  call  for  him  was 
not  "  Isaac's  pure  pleasures  and  a  verdant  home,"  but 
the  life  of  retirement  and  self-denial.  He  was  directed 
by  M.  Hamel  to  ask  M.  Singlin's  advice,  and  Singlin  at 
first  thought  of  the  regular  religious  life;  but  there 
seemed  to  be  difficulties,  and  M.  Hamon's  thoughts  and 
wishes  turned  to  Port  Royal.  At  first  at  Port  Royal 
he  worked  in  the  fields  ;  then  he  looked  after  M.  Antoine 


M.   PALLU'S  SUCCESSOE  201 

Arnauld,  and  finally  at  M.  Pallu's  death  he  was  asked 
to  become  the  Port  Royal  physician. 

M.  Hamon  had  a  truly  Christ-like  love  of  the  poor. 
He  must  have  been  an  unspeakable  comfort  to  the  poor 
around  Port  Royal,  to  whom  he  came  as  a  physician 
alike  of  soul  and  body.  We  shall  meet  him  again  in  the 
days  of  persecution. 

We  are  now  face  to  face  with  another  family  whose 
fortunes  were  closely  bound  up  with  Port  Royal.  For 
this  we  must  begin  a  new  chapter. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   PASCALS   (1623-1654) 

THE  great  name  of  Blaise  Pascal  is  to  the  world  at 
large  associated  with  Port  Royal,  for  Pascal's  relations 
with  the  Port  Royalists  were  intimate ;  yet  he  was 
never,  strictly  speaking,  one  of  them.  A  friend,  an 
admirer,  and  an  opponent  of  their  opponents,  he  never 
formally  joined  the  band  of  "  Solitaires."  He  paid  long 
visits  to  Port  Royal,  but  it  was  as  a  visitor  that  he  came 
and  left.  But  so  long  as  Pascal  is  read — which  will  be 
as  long  as  any  human  soul  feels  the  burden  of  the 
problems  of  existence — and  as  long  as  any  human  intelli- 
gence can  enjoy  a  faultless  style  and  an  unsurpassed 
irony,  Port  Royal,  for  his  sake  at  least,  will  be 
remembered. 

Blaise  Pascal  is  not  the  only  interesting  member  of 
his  family.  The  Pascals  are  not  unlike  the  Arnaulds, 
only  they  are  not  so  numerous. 

The  father,  Etienne,  was  a  learned  and  capable 
person,  who  when  his  son  was  born  was  "second 
president  de  la  cours  des  Aides  de  Clermont."  Like 
the  Arnaulds,  the  Pascal  family  were  of  Auvergne. 
Sainte  Beuve's  remark  is  too  witty  to  omit :  "  Pro- 
venue  de  ce  commun  berceau  et  arrivee  plus  tard  sur 
la  scene  en  renfort  aux  Arnaulds  qui  pliaient,  elle  fut 
v£ritablement  pour  parler  a  la  facon  d'Augustin  Thierry 
une  seconde  invasion  franque  au  sein  du  Jansenisme : 
elle  en  marque  le  second  temps  et  comme  la  seconde 
jeunesse  de  la  gloire  Carlovingienne."  And  like  the 
Arnaulds,  the  Pascals  were  of  the  gens  de  la  robe ; 


ETIENNE  PASCAL  203 

the  family  history  dates  as  far  back  as  the  reign  of 
Louis  XI. 

It  is  pleasant  to  read  of  the  father  of  Blaise,  Etienne 
Pascal,  coming-  to  Paris  to  study  law,  with  introductions 
to  the  father  of  our  Arnaulds,  the  kind,  genial  M. 
Arnauld  of  the  early  days. 

Etienne  returned  to  Clermont,  and,  after  the  fashion 
of  the  time,  bought  a  legal  appointment,  and  in  time 
became  a  president  of  the  Cour  des  Aides.  In  1618 
he  married  Antoinette  Be"gon,  who  bore  him  six  children, 
and  died  in  1627.  One  longs  to  know  more  of  Pascal's 
young  mother,  who  was  only  twenty-three  years 
older  than  himself,  and  whom  he  can  scarcely  have 
remembered. 

Etienne  Pascal  left  Auvergne  soon  after  his  wife's 
death,  and  settled  in  Paris.  He  was  a  student,  a  lover 
of  science,  and  he  seems  to  have  made  sufficient  money 
to  enable  him  to  live  a  leisurely,  dignified  life  in  Paris 
amongst  the  most  learned  and  distinguished  men  there. 
The  meetings  which  were  held  at  the  houses  of  some 
of  these  savants  became  the  starting-point  of  the 
Academic  des  Sciences. 

Blaise  was  born  and  bred  in  a  scientific  atmosphere  ; 
to  the  last  day  of  his  life  he  was  not  in  the  least  what 
one  would  call  a  man  of  letters  or  a  book-lover.  He 
was  educated  by  his  father,  who  with  real  self-denial, 
and  for  that  age,  extraordinary  wisdom,  took  care  not 
to  push  the  wonderful  boy,  but  to  keep  him  back  from 
the  mere  acquisition  of  knowledge,  and  encouraged  him 
to  think  and  to  reason. 

His  elder  sister,  Gilberte,  tells  us  how  astonishing 
were  the  young  Pascal's  questions,  and  comments  on 
the  answers  which  he  received.  He  always  wished  to 
know,  says  his  sister  in  her  life  of  her  brother,  "la 
raison  de  toutes  choses."  And  of  course  we  all  know 
the  story  of  the  boy's  discovery  of  geometry  for  himself. 
His  father,  from  the  pure  love  of  science  in  general  and 
of  mathematics  in  particular,  had  thought  it  unwise  to 
allow  Blaise  to  turn  his  attention  from  the  study  of 
languages  even  by  acquiring  the  early  books  of  Euclid, 


204  THE   PASCALS 

And  the  boy  was  found  amusing  himself  by  gradually 
discovering  the  science  of  geometry  as  far  as  to  the 
thirty-second  proposition  of  the  first  book. 

M.  Etienne  Pascal  was  almost  terrified,  as  was  not 
indeed  unnatural,  at  finding  he  was  the  father  of  a 
genius,  and  went  off  at  once  to  consult  a  learned  friend, 
M.  Le  Pailleur,  who  asked  anxiously  what  was  the 
cause  of  M.  Pascal's  evident  agitation.  The  father  told 
what  he  had  just  seen,  and  how  Blaise  Pascal  had,  so 
to  speak,  discovered  mathematics. 

Of  course  after  this  there  was  no  question  of  putting 
any  let  or  hindrance  in  the  boy's  way,  and  so  by  way  of 
recreation  the  proud  and  happy  father  gave  the  gifted 
child  lessons  in  Euclid,  and  allowed  him  to  be  present 
at  the  weekly  meeting  of  his  scientific  friends.  Very 
soon  Blaise  Pascal  was  regarded  by  these  men  as  an 
equal,  and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  wrote  a  treatise 
on  Conic  Sections ;  but,  says  his  sister  Gilberte, 
"as  my  brother  never  cared  for  fame,  this  was  never 
printed." 

Pascal's  only  tutor  was  his  father,  who  took  the 
keenest  delight  in  educating  his  son  ;  but,  alas,  he  forgot 
his  early  prudence,  and  was  heedless  of  the  risk  he  was 
running.  The  boy's  physical  health  could  not  resist  the 
perpetual  strain,  and  from  the  time  Blaise  Pascal  was 
eighteen  he  hardly  ever  knew  a  day's  health. 

And  side  by  side  with  Blaise,  his  sister  Jacqueline 
was  growing  up,  a  most  astonishing  young  prodigy. 
Both  the  sisters,  indeed,  were  gifted  and  remarkable. 
The  eldest,  Gilberte,  was  educated  by  her  father,  and 
in  turn  educated  her  little  sister,  her  junior  by  five  years. 
Gilberte  married  a  lawyer,  M.  P£rier,  and  became  the 
mother  of  Marguerite,  the  subject  of  the  miracle  of  the 
Holy  Thorn,  of  which  we  shall  speak  later. 

Gilberte  was  beautiful  and  clever,  and  was  devoted 
to  her  brother  and  sister.  Jacqueline,  from  the  time 
when  she  began  to  speak,  gave  evidence  of  her  great 
gifts.  M.  Cousin  says  in  his  delightful  book,  Jacqueline 
Pascal,  that  Jacqueline  was  in  no  wise  inferior  to  her 
brother  either  in  mind  or  in  character, 


[To  face  p.  204. 


JACQUELINE  PASCAL  205 

It  is  thanks  to  the  devotion  of  Gilberte  Perier  and  to 
her  daughter  Marguerite  that  we  know  so  much  about 
Jacqueline,  whose  only  care  in  life  (after  her  conversion) 
was  to  tread  the  way  of  perfection.  Jacqueline  showed 
in  her  earliest  years  a  taste  for  versifying ;  Gilberte 
found  she  could  only  teach  her  to  read  by  letting  her 
learn  the  art  from  a  book  of  verses.  Together  with  two 
small  friends,  the  children  of  a  Madame  Saintot,  Jac- 
queline composed  a  play  and  acted  it,  and,  as  Gilberte 
proudly  relates,  the  performance  of  these  very  youthful 
authors  and  actors  was  the  talk  of  Paris.  It  is  a 
pleasing  little  glimpse  of  a  gayer  and  more  natural  child 
life  than  the  kind  of  thing  we  generally  encounter  in 
Port  Royal  circles.  Amusement  does  not  enter  much 
into  the  Port  Royalists'  scheme  of  life.  But  this  episode 
was  before  the  Pascal  family  fell  under  Port  Royal 
influence. 

Jacqueline's  talents  brought  her  under  the  notice  of 
no  less  a  person  than  the  Queen  (Anne  of  Austria), 
and  the  little  girl  became  a  great  favourite,  coming 
and  going  at  her  pleasure,  and  making  impromptu 
verses  and  epigrams  to  the  great  delight  of  her  royal 
mistress. 

In  the  meantime  M.  Etienne  Pascal  had  come  into 
notice  in  a  less  agreeable  fashion. 

It  was  reported  that  he  and  some  others  at  a  meeting 
at  the  Chancellor  Seguier's  house  had  grumbled,  a  little 
over-much  for  Richelieu's  liking,  concerning  a  reduction 
made  in  the  rents  which  fell  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  in 
which  M.  Pascal  had  invested  his  own  money.  The 
Bastille  was  the  fate  of  more  than  one  of  those  poor 
people ;  Etienne  Pascal  only  escaped  by  concealment. 
Gilberte  took  care  of  her  brother  and  sister  at  this  time, 
and  little  Jacqueline  fell  ill  of  smallpox,  which  horrible 
scourge  destroyed  the  child's  good  looks.  It  is  touching 
to  read  of  the  father  creeping  home  to  watch  over  his 
sick  child,  and  only  departing  when  she  was  out  of 
danger.  Jacqueline  was,  however,  to  prove  his  deliverer. 
On  her  recovery,  the  little  girl  composed  some  verses, 
which  to  our  mind  are  quite  detestable,  in  which  she 


206  THE  PASCALS 

thanks  God  for  her  life,  and  for  the  withdrawal  of  that 
dangerous  gift,  good  looks  : — 

"  O  que  mon  cceur  se  sent  heureux 
Quand  au  miroir  je  vois  les  creux 
Et  les  marques  de  ma  verole." 

Bad  as  the  verses  are,  there  breathes  the  spirit  of  will- 
ingness to  accept  the  cross  which  God  held  out  to  her, 
and  from  this  ideal  she  never  shrank. 

A  few  months  after  Jacqueline's  illness,  Cardinal 
Richelieu,  in  one  of  his  gay  moments,  ordered  a  children's 
play,  and  Mme.  d'Aiguillon,  his  niece  (who,  we  remem- 
ber, visited  St  Cyran  in  his  imprisonment),  undertook  to 
manage  it.  The  kindly  Duchesse,  and  Mme.  Saintot, 
who  was  a  friend  of  hers,  thought  that  if  little  Jacqueline 
were  to  appear,  her  talent  and  her  extremely  youthful 
appearance  (she  was  then  thirteen,  but  looked  about 
eight)  might  soften  the  Cardinal's  heart.  Accordingly 
Jacqueline  appeared  in  the  comedy  and  acted  very  well. 
After  the  play  was  over  she  waited  about,  hoping  Mme. 
Saintot  would  arrange  her  presentation  to  the  Cardinal. 
But  there  was  no  sign  of  Mme.  Saintot,  and  the 
Cardinal  was  about  to  retire.  So  the  courageous  little 
Jacqueline  went  up  to  him  by  herself  and  was  imme- 
diately taken  on  his  knee,  and  as  she  began  her  mission 
by  a  fit  of  crying,  the  much-dreaded  Minister  set  to 
work  to  comfort  her.  Mme.  d'Aiguillon  said  some  kindly 
words,  and  Jacqueline  found  courage  to  beg  that  her 
father  might  be  allowed  to  come  home,  a  favour  which 
Richelieu  promptly  granted.  Whereupon  Jacqueline, 
who  was  certainly  a  little  woman  of  the  world,  and  had 
not  had  the  entree  to  the  Court  for  nothing,  said  at  once 
that  she  had  another  favour  to  ask,  and  that  was, 
"  Might  her  father  come  and  thank  the  Cardinal  ?  " 

Richelieu  replied  that  M.  Pascal  must  certainly  come, 
and  bring  all  his  family  with  him.  And  so  it  all  ended 
happily,  and  M.  Etienne  Pascal  was  not  only  forgiven 
his  imaginary  offences  (as  imaginary  as  had  been  M.  St 
Cyran's),  but  was  sent  to  be  one  of  the  intendants  of 
Normandy,  into  the  Rouen  district.  In  consequence  of 


BLAISE  PASCAL'S  CONVERSION     207 

this,  the  Pascal  family  took  up  their  abode  at  Rouen ; 
and  Blaise,  in  order  to  help  his  father  in  a  difficult  task, 
set  to  work  on  his  calculating  machine.  For,  indeed, 
the  office  of  intendant  was  a  difficult  one,  and  the  pro- 
vinces were  groaning"  under  unjust  and  excessive  taxa- 
tion. There  had  just  been  an  attempt  at  a  revolt ;  troops 
had  been  sent  and  the  leaders  hanged.  What  misery, 
what  horrors  are  implied  in  these  bald  statements! 
Blaise  was  not  in  advance  of  his  age,  and  neither  he  nor 
any  of  the  Port  Royalist  friends  had  any  of  the  search- 
ings  of  heart  about  social  questions  which  two  centuries 
later  stirred  the  minds  of  Lacordaire,  Lamennias,  of 
Kingsley  and  Maurice,  and  many  more.  And  in  these 
early  Rouen  years,  Jacqueline  amused  herself  with  her 
talent  for  making  verses.  No  less  a  person  than 
Corneille  assigned  to  her  the  prize  in  a  competition  on 
the  rather  odd  subject  of  the  Immaculate  Conception. 
Something  of  this  sort  of  literary  competition  seems  to 
have  existed  for  many  centuries  in  Rouen. 

The  elder  of  the  sisters,  Gilberte,  was  married  in 
1641  to  M.  Perier,  a  distant  connection  of  the  Pascal 
family,  himself  something  of  a  savant,  and  a  member 
of  the  profession  of  gens  de  la  robe.  Pascal  was  now 
twenty-three,  and  it  was  at  this  period  of  his  life  that 
his  first  conversion  took  place. 

Etienne  Pascal  had  fallen  dangerously  ill,  and  had 
placed  himself  under  the  care  of  two  much  esteemed 
physicians.  These  were  the  two  brethren,  M.  de  la 
Bouteillerie  and  M.  Des  Landes,  who,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  friends  of  M.  Guillebert,  the  correspondent  of 
M.  de  St  Cyran  and  of  M.  Du  Fosse. 

And  they  not  only  took  care  of  M.  Pascal's  health 
(he  had  fractured  his  thigh),  but  in  the  fashion  of  that 
serious  age,  the  seventeenth  century,  when  every  one 
seems  to  have  been  more  or  less  interested  in  religion, 
they  initiated  him  into  the  literature  and  the  spirit  of 
the  Port  Royalists — M.  de  St  Cyran's  letters;  the 
famous  Fre'quente  Communion  ;  a  writing  of  Jansenius, 
De  la  Reformation  de  I'homme  inte'rieur.  Of  this  last, 
Sainte  Beuve  reminds  us,  we  can  find  traces  in  Pascal. 


208  THE  PASCALS 

The  Pascal  family  were  strongly  influenced  by  this 
new  conception  of  ethical  obligations,  Blaise  the  most 
thoroughly  of  them  all ;  and  he  entered  into  this  spirit 
of  devotion  and  drew  his  sister  Jacqueline  with  him. 
As  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  Antoine  Le  Maitre,  it 
was  in  the  nature  of  St  Cyran  and  of  those  who  followed 
his  teaching  to  enjoin  all  to  renounce  the  world.  This 
is  the  weak  side  of  the  great  movement  with  which  Port 
Royal  is  associated.  To  fight  against  evil  and  conse- 
crate learning,  labour,  life  itself,  seemed  impossible  in 
the  midst  of  secular  employments  and  the  distractions  of 
the  married  state.  The  joylessness  of  Pascal  and  of 
the  Port  Royalists  generally  is  the  great  defect  in  their 
teaching. 

Pascal  dissuaded  his  sister  from  marriage,  and  she 
fairly  outran  her  brother.  It  is  certain  that  she  really 
had  a  vocation  for  the  life  of  Religion,  which  her 
brother  discerned  ;  it  is  not  probable  that  he  interfered 
in  anything  of  a  love  story. 

Etienne  Pascal  embraced  this  higher  life,  and  a  little 
later  the  Periers,  who  had  come  to  visit  their  family  at 
Rouen,  followed  the  example  of  their  relatives.  Gilberte 
P6rier  was  only  twenty-six,  and  seems  to  have  given  up 
society  and  amusements  with  full  contentment.  We 
remember  how  Du  Fosse  tells  us  of  the  entire  conversion 
of  his  own  family,  and  there  is  something  very  touching 
in  the  devotion  and  self-denial  and  lofty  ideals  by  which 
so  many  people  just  then  were  possessed.  About  this 
time  Pascal  had  his  first  encounter  with  false  teaching ; 
a  certain  monk  at  Rouen,  known  as  Frere  Saint  Ange, 
had  become  notorious  in  a  small  way  by  some  attempts 
at  philosophical  thought,  which  had  landed  him  in 
heresy.  JBlaise  and  two  of  his  friends  having  in  vain 
tried  to  lead  the  erring  religious  to  a  right  way  of  think- 
ing, brought  his  errors  to  the  notice  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Rouen,  and  Frere  Saint  Ange  was  obliged  to  retract. 

Pascal  was  even  now  tormented  with  terrible  ill- 
health.  The  doctors  forbade  all  brain  work,  and,  after 
the  fashion  of  the  time,  made  him  swallow  horrible 
medicines. 


K 


PASCAL'S  PKAYER  209 

His  wonderful  prayer  "  For  a  right  use  of  sickness" 
was  probably  written  at  this  time  (1643).  It  is  too  long 
to  quote  entirely,  but  a  few  sentences  will  give  us  a  con- 
ception of  the  austere,  resigned  spirit  of  the  young  man 
of  twenty-four,  who,  knowing  himself  to  be  possessed  of 
mental  powers  which  placed  him  on  a  level  with  the 
greatest  thinkers  of  the  day,  was  able  to  feel,  like  another 
brother  in  the  faith,  "  In  la  sua  voluntade  e  nostra 
pace":  —  "Lord,  whose  Spirit  is  so  sweet,  so  good  in 
all  things,  Thou  who  art  so  merciful  that  not  only 
prosperity  but  also  misfortunes  which  happen  to  Thine 
elect  are  consequences  of  Thy  mercy,  give  me  the  grace 
not  to  act  as  a  heathen  in  this  condition  to  which  Thy 
righteousness  has  brought  me." 

And  so  on,  step  by  step,  he  reasons  as  it  were  with 
God,  and  prays  in  calm,  strong  words,  behind  which  he 
conceals  the  passion  of  pain  and  of  disappointment, 
that  God's  will  may  be  worked  out  in  him  :  "I  ask 
from  Thee  neither  health,  nor  sickness,  nor  life,  nor 
death,  but  that  Thou  shouldest  order  for  me  health, 
sickness,  life,  death,  for  Thy  glory  and  my  salvation. 
Thou  only  knowest  what  is  good  for  me,  do  for  me  what 
is  Thy  will  ;  give,  or  take  away,  but  conform  my  will 
to  Thine." 

"Thou  art  our  Master,"  this  surely  is  the  key-note 
of  the  great  scale  on  which  Pascal  has  formed  this 
harmony  of  his  soul.  He  too  breathes  that  fervent 
desire  to  be  one  with  Christ  which  is  the  yearning  of  all 
holy  souls  throughout  the  ages  :  "Come  into  my  heart 
and  soul,  and  bear  there  my  sufferings,  and  endure  in 
me  what  is  lacking  yet  in  Thy  Passion,  that  which  Thou 
fillest  up  in  our  bodies,  until  the  Perfect  Consummation 
of  Thy  Body,  so  that  no  longer  it  be  I  who  live  and 
endure,  but  Thou  who  livest  and  endurest  in  me,  O  my 
Saviour  "  —  words  which  are  re-echoed  by  so  many  hearts 
and  uttered  by  so  many  lips  in  varying  forms  but  in  like 
spiration. 

About  this  time  also,  Pascal  paid  a  visit  to  Paris  and 
came  more  directly  under  Port  Royal  influence,  for  he 
heard  M.  Singlin  preach.  His  influence  was  then  at  its 


210  THE  PASCALS 

height ;  he  was  the  Christian  preacher  par  excellence. 
He  held  before  his  hearers'  minds  the  ideal  of  Christian 
life.  Perfectly  simple  in  manner,  with  no  oratorical 
mannerisms,  no  display  of  self,  he  had  that  gift  of  winning 
souls  which  is  given  to  some  in  every  generation.  Writ- 
ing to  the  Queen  of  Poland,  Mere  Angelique  says  :  "  Our 
Church  is  always  full.  He  always  converts  some  one!  " 
And  as  Sainte  Beuve  in  quoting  this  passage  remarks, 
;<  This  some  one  was  once  upon  a  time  Pascal ! " 

And  it  was  remarkable  how  each  of  his  hearers  felt 
that  M.  Singlin's  sermons  were  meant  for  his  own 
particular  case  and  aimed  at  him.  This  was  so  with 
the  ardent,  gifted,  young  Pascals.  Jacqueline  at  once 
felt  a  great  desire  to  enter  Port  Royal ;  through  M. 
Guillebert  she  was  introduced  to  Mere  Angelique,  by 
whom  she  was  terrified  a  good  deal  at  first,  while  she 
was  comforted  and  assured  by  the  gentle  Mere  Agnes. 
But  her  father  could  not  bring  himself  to  the  idea  of 
parting  with  Jacqueline,  and  she  consented  to  give  up 
for  the  time  the  thought  of  leaving  home.  But  so  far  as 
she  could,  Jacqueline  led  the  life  of  a  religious. 

Blaise  Pascal  did  not  at  once  give  up  his  scientific 
work.  He  had  already  made  some  experiments  which 
were  now  (1647)  published  under  the  title,  Nouveaux 
Experiences  sur  le  Vide,  and  he  also  with  the  help  of  his 
brother-in-law  carried  out  experiments  on  the  barometer. 
It  does  not  perhaps  come  within  the  province  of  this 
book  to  describe  Pascal's  scientific  work.  Briefly  it 
may  be  said  that  no  one  will  dispute  his  place  among 
the  great  mathematicians  and  physicists  of  all  ages. 
He  was  conspicuously  original,  and  his  experiments  on 
the  pressure  of  the  air  brought  about  the  acceptance  of 
the  recent  discoveries  of  Galileo.  The  Nouveaux 
Experiences  was  the  cause  of  a  brush  with  the  Jesuits. 
One  of  the  order,  Pere  Noel,  attacked  Pascal,  who 
replied.  Pere  Noel  then  sent  a  letter  by  the  hand  of 
another  Jesuit,  Pere  Talon,  begging  him,  as  he  was  ill, 
not  to  answer.  Pascal  availed  himself  of  this  permission 
until  he  discovered  that  another  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers 
was  assuming  that  his  silence  meant  an  acknowledg- 


FIRST  BRUSH  WITH   THE  JESUITS    211 

ment  of  defeat.  He  replied,  in  the  form  of  a  letter 
to  a  friend,  with  clearness  and  his  accustomed  skill. 
Pere  Noel  wrote  a  silly  answer,  and  was  promptly  dealt 
with  by  Etienne  Pascal,  who  remarked  that  for  want  of 
reasons  Pere  Noel  was  using  insults. 

This  was  the  first  encounter,  but  another  followed. 
The  Jesuits  accused  Pascal  of  claiming-  to  be  the  inventor 
of  an  experiment  really  due  to  the  Italian  savant  Torri- 
celli.  Pascal  was  a  good  deal  incensed  at  this,  and  wrote 
an  indignant  explanation. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Pascal  and  Descartes  met 
once  or  twice.  Descartes  was  struck  with  the  extreme 
ill-health  of  the  gifted  young  man,  and  begged  him  to  lie 
in  bed  a  great  deal  and  take  soup  in  quantities.  They 
had  some  scientific  conversation,  and  there  seems  to  be 
a  doubt  as  to  whether  Pascal  did  not  lay  claim  to  the 
discovery  of  the  pressure  of  the  air  on  mercury,  when  it 
was  really  due  to  Descartes.  The  truth  probably  is 
that  the  idea  occurred  to  both.  Every  one  will  remember 
that  Darwin  and  Wallace  were  working  side  by  side  on 
a  scientific  question,  and  published  papers  almost 
simultaneously  and  with  perfect  independence. 

Certainly,  the  Pascal  family  generally  and  Blaise  in 
particular,  always  regarded  Descartes  with  great  respect, 
and  with  that  fraternal  feeling  which  in  all  ages  binds 
scientific  workers  together  in  a  brotherhood  which  is 
close  and  very  delightful,  as  those  who  have,  even  for  a 
time,  shared  it  can  testify.  There  does,  however,  seem 
to  have  been  some  jealousy  on  Descartes'  part ;  that 
jealousy  which  is  sometimes  oddly  and  sadly  mani- 
fested, towards  the  brilliant  young,  by  the  distinguished 
old,  in  the  scientific  and  literary  world.  Pascal  about 
this  time  was  ordered  by  his  physicians  to  avoid  all 
severe  mental  work ;  for  a  year  or  two  he  gave  himself 
up  to  some  extent  to  the  pleasures  of  the  world  of  Paris 
— in  a  good  sense,  however ;  he  was  one  of  those  pure 
souls  who  have  never  sunk  in:o  sin.  When  the  time 
came  for  a  complete  renunciation,  an  utter  surrender  to 
God,  there  was  no  cloud  of  impurity  to  blot  his  vision 
of  that  which  is  granted  to  the  pure  in  heart.  But  it 


212  THE  PASCALS 

is  sad  that  the  sense  of  the  Immanence  of  God  in  all 
thing's  in  the  world  of  natural  law  should  have  been 
denied  him,  and  that  neither  he  nor  any  Port  Royalist 
could  see  that  the  Incarnation  has  hallowed  the 
whole  world,  and  that  in  the  words  of  one  of  blessed 
memory,  "Every  lesson  of  nature  and  of  life  must 
illuminate  the  Truth,  which  embraces  the  whole  fullness 
of  existence."1 

The  recovery  of  this  truth  has  been  reserved  for  a 
later  generation,  and  in  great  measure  for  the  children  of 
another  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

During-  the  few  years  that  Pascal  was  seen  in  that 
brilliant,  amusing1  society  which  was  at  its  best  in  the 
salon  of  Mme.  de  Rambouillet  and  Mme.  de  Sable, 
he  formed  an  enduring  friendship  with  the  Due  de 
Roannez,  a  boy  of  twenty,  who  attached  himself  to  the 
brilliant  young  scientist,  his  elder  by  some  six  or  seven 
years. 

A  story  sprang  up  that  Pascal  fell  in  love  with  the 
Due's  sister,  but  this  is  improbable.  Certainly  his 
letters  to  her  show  nothing  of  this  supposed  affection. 
His  father  died  in  1651,  a  holy  and  blessed  death. 
Blaise  felt  the  loss  most  keenly ;  like  the  Arnaulds,  the 
Pascals  were  tenderly  attached  to  one  another  :  Etienne 
Pascal  had  been  a  most  tender  and  wise  father  and  a 
thoroughly  good  man.  There  were  among  the  gens  de 
la  robe  at  this  period  so  many  of  these  wise,  upright,  so 
to  speak  "solid"  men. 

Pascal  wrote  a  remarkable  letter  to  his  brother-in- 
law  (always  a  great  friend  of  his),  and  to  Mme.  Perier, 
on  the  consolations  of  the  Christian  Faith.  It  is 
pathetic  to  read  the  words  which  have  been  echoed  from 
so  many  broken  hearts  and  will  be  re-echoed  as  long 
as  the  world  lasts — "how  to  find  comfort." 

Jacqueline  in  the  meantime  had  been  leading  a  holy 
and  almost  conventual  life.  In  a  beautiful  essay  on 
Jacqueline  Pascal,  M.  Vinet  points  out  the  extraordinary 
combination  of  almost  masculine  gifts  and  feminine 
graces  which  met  in  the  sister  of  Blaise.  The  peculiar 

1  Westcott,  Preface  to  Gospel  of  Life. 


JACQUELINE'S  PROFESSION          213 

beauty  of  the  Port  Royal  spirit,  the  deep  seriousness, 
the  absolute  consecration  to  God,  the  complete  abnega- 
tion of  self,  so  conspicuous  in  all  the  great  Port 
Royalists,  were  never  more  fully  developed  than  in  this 
young  girl,  who  died  before  she  had  more  than  just 
passed  Dante's  "mezzo  del  cammin  di  nostra  vita." 

On  the  death  of  her  father,  Jacqueline  felt  that  the 
long  desire  of  her  heart  had  been  given  to  her.  She 
could  now  retire  to  Port  Royal.  Mme.  Perier  was 
staying  with  her  in  Paris,  and  tells  us  how  Jacqueline 
tried  in  vain  to  prepare  Blaise  for  the  coming  separation. 
Blaise  went  to  his  room  in  very  low  spirits,  and 
Jacqueline  went  quietly  to  bed.  The  next  morning 
Mme.  Perier  awoke  her  at  seven,  and  she  got  up, 
dressed,  and  went  away  with  utter  composure,  though 
without  any  farewell.  Neither  sister  dared  say  the 
parting  words. 

But  poor  Jacqueline's  troubles  were  not  over.  To 
her  profound  astonishment,  when  the  time  came  for  her 
Profession  and  when  the  question  of  dowry  had  to  be 
debated,  Blaise  Pascal,  the  brother  who  had  always 
held  up  to  her  the  Religious  Life  as  the  one  and  only 
ideal  to  be  followed,  showed  himself  as  disagreeable 
about  money  matters  as  the  most  worldly-minded 
brother  or  father  could  have  been. 

Poor  Jacqueline  was  utterly  taken  aback.  As  she 
says  in  her  story  which  she  wrote  for  one  of  the  Mothers 
of  Port  Royal :  "  I  had  not  hesitated  one  moment  about 
proposing  this  so-called  disinheritance;  I  only  desired 
to  do  it  for  God,  and  I  was  sure  not  only  that  they 
would  approve,  but  that  they  would  even  be  glad  to 
share,  by  their  consent,  in  this  tiny  bit  of  charity  on  my 
part,  for  they  [her  brother  and  sister]  often  make  very 
considerable  offerings."  However,  one  can  never  reckon 
on  anybody,  even  the  very  best  of  people,  if  it  is  a 
question  of  alienating  money  which,  so  to  speak,  belongs 
to  a  family. 

Jacqueline,  the  most  sensitive  of  souls,  all  but  fell  ill, 
and  to  her  rescue  came  Mere  Agnes,  whom  we  have  not 
met  for  some  time.  She  of  course  took  all  the  money 


214  THE  PASCALS 

trouble  as  a  true  Arnauld  naturally  would  take  it.  She 
lifted  up  the  whole  disagreeable,  rather  sordid  worry 
into  the  atmosphere  in  which  she  habitually  moved  and 
breathed.  Only  to  care  for  what  is  eternal,  to  remember 
that  nothing  temporal  is  irreparable,  that  all  tears 
should  be  kept  for  sin.  And  a  novice  should  think  it 
really  a  disgrace  to  Port  Royal  to  cry  for  any  vexation, 
much  more  so  for  the  mortification  of  having  no  dowry. 
Had  not  the  great  Mother  Angelique  herself  wished  to 
give  away  all  she  possessed  and  become  a  poor  dower- 
less  religious  in  another  house?  Nothing  was  more 
really  valuable  to  Religion  than  absolute  poverty. 

Jacqueline  listened,  half  convinced,  but  still  hurt  in 
all  her  family  pride  and  in  the  tenderest  feelings  of  her 
nature. 

Then  M.  Singlin  came  to  talk  to  her.  In  the  mean- 
time Agnes  went  to  see  Angelique,  whose  feeling  was 
that  Jacqueline  should  give  all  her  portion  to  her  family 
and  only  think  of  the  Profession  so  close  at  hand. 

M.  Singlin,  with  a  masculine  aversion  to  cutting 
knots  and  taking  short  cuts,  thought  that  it  was  just 
possible  to  be  too  generous  and  not  sufficiently  humble. 
With  that  sanctified  common  sense  which  was  his  great 
characteristic,  he  considered  the  question  calmly,  with 
no  parti  pris. 

If  people  with  whom  we  are  concerned  deceive  them- 
selves and  wish  to  be  unjust  and  unfair  to  us,  it  is  a 
positive  duty  to  try  to  convince  them  of  their  mistake, 
provided,  he  went  on  with  the  Port  Royal  loftiness  of 
thought,  we  are  sure  that  we  are  not  moved  by  greed 
of  money. 

But,  on  the  whole,  in  Jacqueline's  case  M.  Singlin 
was  of  the  Mother's  opinion.  The  Pascals  were  really 
good  people,  and  it  was  better  to  yield  and  not  to  strain 
relations  any  further.  Poor  Jacqueline  herself  hardly 
knew  what  she  wanted,  but  her  instinct  of  obedience 
came  to  her  aid  and  she  only  uttered  one  little  request. 
Could  she  not  be  received  as  a  sceur  converse — a  lay 
sister?  But  M.  Singlin  rightly  refused  this  position, 
for  Jacqueline's  strength  would  certainly  not  have  been 


DIFFICULTIES  OVER  HER  DOWRY    215 

equal  to  the  demands  which  would  have  been  made 
upon  it. 

Jacqueline  wrote  to  her  relations,  and  the  next  day, 
she  tells  us,  she  had  an  interview  with  Mere  Angdique, 
who,  as  might  have  been  expected,  bade  her  regard  all 
these  contradictions  as  means  of  grace.  Still — poor 
Jacqueline's  wounded  heart  needed  comfort,  and  the 
next  day,  after  Mass,  Mere  Angelique,  so  often  severe 
to  others  and  invariably  unsparing  to  herself,  took  the 
poor  child  into  her  arms  and  comforted  and  petted  her 
for  a  long  time. 

Angelique's  counsels  were  as  wise  and  as  character- 
istic as  any  she  ever  gave.  Amongst  other  things  she 
told  Jacqueline  :  "  I  would  not  for  the  sake  of  twice  the 
disputed  money  have  had  you  spared  this  trial.  My 
child,  you  gave  up  the  world  too  easily.  God  gave  you 
the  especial  grace  of  very  early  recognising  the  vanity 
of  amusement  and  of  society,  but  you  were  not  really 
holier  for  that,  for  it  was  entirely  God's  gift.  You  were 
very  detached,  but  bad  things  remained — your  own 
private  passions  and  the  intense  affection  and  union 
which  bound  you  to  your  family." 

It  would  be  too  long  to  quote  all  the  extremely 
interesting  conversations.  Mere  Angelique's  thesis  was 
that  Jacqueline  had  expected  too  much  from  her  family, 
especially  from  Blaise.  She  too,  she  told  Jacqueline, 
had  been  tried  by  injustice  and  by  the  failure  of  the 
relations  of  a  novice  to  pay  a  promised  dowry  at  a  time 
when  it  would  have  been  particularly  welcome.  "  I 
really  did  feel  hurt  by  this."  However,  M.  de  St 
Cyran  had  advised  her  to  bear  this  trial — a  very  real 
one — and  never  to  show  any  hurt  feeling,  and  said  that 
she  was  to  treat  the  people  who  had  played  her  falsely 
as  if  she  had  forgotten  all  about  it. 

"  C'est  pourquoi,  ma  fille,  au  nom  de  Dieu  "  (we  can 
see  the  Mother  getting  more  and  more  excited)  "ne 
vous  emportez  point  contre  vos  parents,  ne  leur  temoignez 
aucun  ressentiment,  et  que  cela  n'aliene  aucunement 
votre  union,  car,  enfin,  de  quoi  s'agit  il  ?  d'un  peu  de  bien, 
voila  tout." 


voil 


216  THE  PASCALS 

And  so  Jacqueline  was  to  write  to  her  brother  and 
sister  with  absolute  affection  and  openness,  and  was  to 
think  as  little  as  possible  about  her  possessions  and  of 
the  use  she  had  already  made  of  them.  "Feu  M.  de 
St  Cyran"  was  again  quoted;  he  is  Mere  Angeligue's 
great  support  still.  Jacqueline's  relations  were  simply 
acting  as  they  did  because  they  had  not  been  granted 
sufficient  light,  and  Jacqueline's  feelings  showed  that 
she  was  not  yet  a  thorough  Port  Royalist.  If  it  was 
needful  that  her  relations  should  be  unjust  to  some  one,  it 
was  good  that  they  had  been  unjust  to  Port  Royal,  "  for 
you  could  not  know  how  others  might  bear  such  things, 
and  for  us,  we  do  not  trouble  ourselves  over  much." 

Blaise  arrived  a  few  days  afterwards,  and  Jacqueline 
tried  her  best  to  disguise  her  feelings,  but  in  vain. 
The  brother  and  sister  were  far  too  closely  united  for 
him  not  to  see  that  she  was  unhappy.  Blaise  was  not  a 
little  surprised  when  Jacqueline  broke  off  some  complaint 
he  was  beginning  to  make  by  telling  him  that  as  Port 
Royal  was  perfectly  willing  to  receive  her  for  nothing, 
she  was  resolved  to  trouble  herself  no  longer.  The 
family  pride  of  the  brother  was  touched ;  he  declared 
that  he  would  settle  matters  and  do  what  was  fair  and 
right.  So  once  again  the  affair  of  poor  Jacqueline's 
dowry  had  to  be  discussed,  and  Mere  Angelique's  one 
anxiety  was,  that  not  a  shadow  of  self-interest  should  be 
shown  by  any  one.  M.  Singlin  was  the  spiritual  father 
of  Port  Royal  and  of  the  Pascals,  and  was  naturally  not 
a  little  anxious  to  bring  Blaise  and  Mme.  Perier  to  a 
right  mind ;  and  Mere  Agnes's  only  wish  was  that 
Jacqueline,  who  as  novice  was  under  her  especial  care, 
should  use  the  trial  rightly.  Jacqueline  was  to  make  no 
effort,  Agnes  said,  to  bring  about  what  she  so  much 
wished,  and  when  the  young  girl  spoke  rather  warmly  of 
the  injustice  of  her  relations,  Agnes  reproved  her 
severely  and  said  that  only  pride  or  avarice,  perhaps 
both,  could  possibly  make  her  speak  in  this  way. 

At  last  everything  was  brought  to  a  satisfactory  end, 
but  M&re  Angelique  would  not  have  the  legal  documents 
signed  until  after  Jacqueline's  Profession,  so  that  what- 


DIFFICULTIES   SETTLED  217 

ever  Blaise  Pascal  did,  should  be  done — as  it  were — not  of 
necessity.  Pascal,  one  would  think,  might  have  known 
Port  Royal,  but  it  seems  he  did  not,  and  both  he  and 
his  lawyers  were  much  surprised.  Mere  Angelique 
addressed  him  in  words  very  few  and  very  dignified. 
For  fear  lest  Jacqueline  had  not  been  sufficiently  explicit, 
she  said  that  she  herself  must  beg  him  to  do  whatever 
he  did  simply  as  an  alms,  not  for  any  other  reason. 
For  M.  de  St  Cyran  had  taught  them  to  receive  nothing 
from  the  hands  of  God  except  what  came  from  God ; 
anything  done  from  any  other  motive  was  not  from  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

Pascal  answered  in  a  suitable  manner,  and  this 
business,  which  one  would  think  might  have  been 
avoided,  was  happily  ended. 

Angelique  came  back  from  the  parlour  and  told  the 
newly  professed,  now  to  be  known  as  Sceur  Euphemie, 
that  everything  was  over  and  she  need  vex  herself  no 
more,  but,  she  said,  it  really  troubled  her  that  Jacqueline 
should  have  taken  it  so  much  to  heart.  "  I  really  am 
quite  afraid,  my  child,"  she  said  to  me  with  wonderful 
charity,  "  that  you  may  have  offended  God  in  this  affair  ; 
do  think  about  it  seriously,  I  beg  you."  Then  she  went 
on  to  praise  Blaise,  and  to  remind  his  sister  how 
generously  he  gave  of  his  own  means. 

And  so  the  affair  was  ended,  and  Jacqueline,  or 
Sceur  Euphemie  as  we  must  henceforth  call  her, 
became  to  her  brother  an  example  of  devotion  and  a 

•  real  help  to  him  in  his  own  spiritual  life. 
Jacqueline  was  professed  in  1653,  and,  to  quote  an 
account  of  her  life  given  in  Vies  ddifiantes  et  interes- 
santes,  "she  in  a  few  years  fulfilled  a  long  time."1  She 
was  set  to  be  mistress  of  the  postulants  and  then  to 
look  after  the  children  of  Port  Royal,  and  some  years 
afterwards  she  drew  up  a  rule  for  the  direction  of 
children  which  chills  us  a  good  deal. 

It  is  written  apparently  for  M.  Singlin,  who  seems 
to  have  asked  her  to  draw  up  a  precis  of  her  rules  as  to 
the  direction  of  children. 

1  Wisdom  iv.  13. 


218  THE  PASCALS 

She  begins  by  saying  that  she  owes  everything  to 
the  advice  given  her  by  Mere  Angelique,  that  she 
should  always  simply  remember,  "  Dieu  fera  tout." 

There  is  evidently  much  kindness  and  no  severity  in 
Sceur  Euphemie's  rule,  but  an  absolute  repression  of 
children's  joys,  of  playfulness.  Yet,  it  was  full  of 
goodness  and  of  deep  and  intense  affection.  Little 
children  must  be  treated  if  possible  as  little  doves. 
And  she  has  a  righteous  horror  of  nagging:  If  children 
must  be  punished,  it  must  be  done  very  quietly — every 
pains  must  be  taken  to  prevent  them  from  falling  into 
habits  of  deceit  or  falsehood ;  great  gentleness  should 
always  be  exercised. 

It  is  the  absence  of  healthy  play  and  the  over 
insistence  on  attendance  at  Offices  which  makes  the 
picture  so  gloomy ;  but  that  girls  need  to  play,  and  not 
to  be  always  watched,  is  a  discovery  of  very  recent 
days. 

Sceur  Euphemie  says  much  of  the  need  of  con- 
fidence between  the  mistress  and  her  pupils,  and  of  the 
private  conversations  which  should  sometimes  be  held. 
Her  one  and  only  aim  was — to  make  her  children  good. 
We  have  from  her  a  meditation  on  the  Mystery  of  the 
Death  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  which  is  much  too 
long  to  quote  entirely,  and  which  breathes  a  spirit  of 
deep  devotion,  but — like  so  many  holy  and  devout  souls 
of  that  age  and  of  that  school  of  thought — Jacqueline 
Pascal  seems  to  miss  the  perception  that  after  all  it  is 
with  a  living  Lord  that  we  have  to  do,  and  that 
although  we  die  it  is  only  that  we  may  live. 

Pascal  seems  at  that  time  (1652-1663)  to  have 
occupied  himself  with  science  and  with  society.  He 
wrote  the  curious  Discours  sur  les  Passions  de  r Amour. 
This  may  have  been  written  at  the  command  of  some 
literary  clique,  some  salon;  or  as  one  of  his  latest 
biographers,  M.  Boutroux,  suggests,  Pascal  may  have 
wished  to  try  his  powers  on  something  else  than 
mathematics.  Possibly  he  was  speaking  from  the 
depths  of  experience,  when  he  writes  of  the  pleasures  of 
a  concealed  love  and  of  the  love  a  man  may  feel  for  one 


PASCAL'S   SECOND   CONVERSION     219 

above  him  in  rank.  On  the  whole,  as  we  have  said,  it 
is  possible  but  not  probable  that  this  nameless  beloved 
was  the  sister  of  Pascal's  friend,  the  Due  de  Roannez. 

It  was  in  these  years  that  some  of  his  chief  mathe- 
matical discoveries  were  made.  Two  treatises  on 
mathematical  subjects  were  written  at  this  time,  and 
with  the  mathematician  Fermat,  Pascal  corresponded 
on  the  theory  of  chance.  And  he  seems  to  have 
abandoned  the  idea  of  a  life  of  devotion ;  he  con- 
templated marriage ;  he  wished  for  some  definite  appoint- 
ment ;  when  again  God  touched  him  and  his  second 
conversion  set  him  apart  for  ever. 

It  was  in  1653  that  the  second  conversion  was 
granted  to  him.  It  was  an  accident  apparently  which 
produced  this.  Because  the  traces  of  his  horses  broke, 
Pascal  escaped  what  must  have  seemed  certain  death ; 
he  was  driving  in  a  carriage  with  four  horses,  and  the 
leaders,  taking  fright,  jumped  over  the  bridge  of 
Neuilly  ;  but  as  the  harness  gave  way,  the  carriage  and 
the  other  horses  stopped  abruptly. 

Various  legends  have  grown  up  around  this  escape ; 
one  that  Pascal  often  had  a  vision  of  an  abyss  opening 
at  his  side,  and  that  he  was  subject  to  hallucinations ; 
but,  as  Sainte  Beuve  says,  his  conversion  came  from 
a  soul  newly  touched,  not  from  a  bewildered  brain. 

And  now  began  a  series  of  visits  to  Port  Royal  (de 
Paris),  and  long  and  earnest  conversations  with  his 
sister,  once  his  pupil,  now  his  teacher. 

On  December  8,  Pascal  was  at  Port  Royal,  and  went 
into  church  to  hear  M.  Singlin's  sermon.  The 
preacher's  subject  was  the  absolute  need  of  self- 
surrender,  of  undertaking  nothing  without  prayer ;  a 
sermon  on  what  ought  to  be  a  commonplace  of 
Christian  life,  but  which  has  to  be  newly  taught  and 
learnt  in  every  generation. 

This  was  the  turning-point  in  Blaise's  life.  He,  like 
many  another,  felt  that  the  sermon  was  preached  to  him 
and  for  him,  and  what  was  he  to  do  ?  And  to  him  was 
granted  something  of  the  ecstasy  of  faith,  something  of 
a  real  revelation  and  of  those  wonderful  experiences  of 


220  THE  PASCALS 

which  saints  have  humbly  testified,  and  of  which  Keble 
says : — 

"  If  ever  on  the  Mount  with  Thee 
I  seem  to  soar  in  vision  bright, 
With  thoughts  of  coming  agony, 
Stay  Thou  the  too  presumptuous  flight." 

Pascal,  like  many  of  the  men  who  came  under  the 
influence  of  Port  Royal,  felt  the  need  of  quiet,  and 
retired  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  where  he 
encountered  M.  de  Saci.  Jacqueline  wrote  to  her 
sister  that  their  brother  lost  nothing  by  this  change  in 
the  way  of  "direction,"  for  M.  Singlin  had  provided 
him  with  an  incomparable  spiritual  guide,  "aussi  est-il 
de  bonne  race,"  the  good  breed  of  the  Arnaulds!  M. 
Singlin  had  constituted  Jacqueline  as  Pascal's  director 
provisionally  while  he  was  away ! 

At  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  Pascal  shared  in  the 
daily  life  of  the  other  "  Solitaires,"  joining  in  all  the 
Offices  from  Prime  to  Compline,  and  feeling  no  ill  effects 
from  early  rising  and  plain  living.  He  had  gone  at  first 
at  the  Epiphany  to  the  house  of  the  Due  de  Luines, 
and  then  migrated  to  the  country-house  occupied  by  the 
Solitaires.  He  lived  quite  simply,  making  his  own  bed, 
and  being  waited  on  as  little  as  possible. 

He  was  intensely  happy,  with  that  fervent  joy  which 
comes  to  so  many  elect  souls  when  they  have  finally 
made  a  great  venture  of  faith  and  have  committed  once 
for  all  their  way  unto  the  Lord. 

His  sister  writes  with  a  bright  playfulness  that  she 
cannot  imagine  what  M.  de  Saci  will  make  of  so  joyous 
a  penitent,  and  gladly  congratulates  him  on  his  im- 
proved health.  "The  cure  of  the  soul  cures  the  body 
also,  unless  indeed  God  wishes  to  try  us  and  strengthen 
us  by  our  infirmities — for  it  is  not  a  small  advantage  to 
receive  a  penance  directly  from  God  Himself." 

A  wonderful  word  of  comfort ! 

And  the  Port  Royalists  welcomed  Pascal  with  great 
joy. 

He,  however,  never  really  belonged  to  them.     He 


PASCAL  AT  PORT  EOYAL  221 

made  occasional  Retreats  at  Port  Royal,  but  never 
finally  took  up  his  abode  there.  He  wrote  a  short 
essay,  Sur  la  Conversion  d'un  Pdcheur,  at  this  time — 
a  bit  of  self-analysis,  the  burden  of  which  is  a  re- 
echo of  St  Augustine — "Fecisti  nos  ad  Te  Domine, 
et  inquietum  est  cor  nostrum  donee  requiescat 
in  Te." 

It  is  pleasant  to  return  to  Fontaine  and  read  his 
account  of  Pascal's  arrival :  Pascal  came  with  a  great 
reputation,  and  M.  de  Saci's  special  task  was  to  teach 
him  to  hold  earthly  knowledge  in  small  esteem.  Pascal 
naturally  had  much  to  say  on  religious  subjects,  and 
like  all  converts  thought  many  of  his  recoveries  to  be 
discoveries.  M.  de  Saci's  quiet  comment  was  that 
M.  Pascal  was  much  to  be  admired,  for  he  had  never 
read  the  Fathers,  and  yet  had  come  to  the  same  conclu- 
sion as  they  had. 

M.  de  Saci  was  never,  so  to  speak,  carried  away  by 
novelty.  Descartes  and  his  opinions  had  considerable 
influence  on  many  of  the  Port  Royalists,  and  many 
were  the  discussions  on  the  subject  of  automatism,  and 
not  a  few  the  experiments  to  prove  that  animals  were 
mere  machines,  says  Fontaine.  The  Due  de  Luines  was 
the  author  of  these  discussions,  but  M.  de  Saci  only 
smiled  gently  and  seemed  to  anticipate  Tennyson's 
lines  : — 

"  Our  little  systems  have  their  day  ; 

They  have  their  day  and  cease  to  be  ; 
They  are  but  broken  lights  of  Thee, 
And  Thou,  O  Lord,  art  more  than  they." 

"What  new  idea  does  it  give  me,"  he  said  to 
Fontaine,  "of  God's  greatness,  when  they  tell  me  the 
sun  is  a  mass  of  gases,  and  animals  are  wound-up 
machines  ?  "  De  Saci  looked  on  Descartes  in  the  light 
of  a  robber  who  had  pillaged  another  robber — Descartes 
had  carried  off  Aristotle's  spoils,  and  Aristotle  (or  what 
was  supposed  to  be  Aristotle)  had  too  long  dominated 
the  Church.  M.  de  Saci,  like  some  others  of  a  later 
day,  wished  for  a  return  to  the  Fathers  and  for  an 
appeal  to  Scripture.  De  Saci  had  a  vague  perception 


222  THE   PASCALS 

of  the  Divine  immanence  and  of  God  in  all  things,  which 
made  him  distrust  Descartes. 

Pascal's  famous  conversation  with  De  Saci  on  the 
value  of  Epictetus  and  of  Montaigne,  is  well  known. 
No  doubt  Pascal  prepared  for  it,  and  Fontaine  has 
taken  his  notes  admirably  and  given  it  to  us  through 
the  medium  of  his  own  delightful  style. 

Epictetus,  Pascal  placed  at  the  head  of  non-Christian 
moralists.  If,  says  Pascal,  he  had  but  known  the 
weakness,  the  powerlessness  of  man,  "j'ose  dire  qu'il 
meriteroit  d'etre  adore."  That  is  the  defect — of  course  ; 
it  has  been  pointed  out  by  many  and  many  a  spiritual 
writer  that  humility  is  a  grace  unknown  to  the  world 
before  Christianity. 

Montaigne,  who  did  for  the  French  language  of  the 
sixteenth  century  what  Pascal  was  to  do  for  the  seven- 
teenth, is  the  very  genius  of  scepticism — not  the  deep, 
heartfelt,  solemn  doubt  experienced  by  many  noble 
souls,  which  may  lead  on  to  the  steadfast  patience,  the 
courage  of  Pascal,  and  of  many  another.  Montaigne 
pushed  religion  out  of  court.  Sainte  Beuve  devotes  a 
few  pages  of  masterly  criticism  to  Montaigne,  and 
points  out  how  Montaigne,  in  his  apology  for  Raimond 
de  Sebond  (a  Spanish  author  translated  by  him) 
derides  man,  whom  he  considers  as  completely  isolated 
and  deprived  of  grace,  of  Divine  Light.  Montaigne 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  was  a  pure  pagan.  He 
clung  to  the  old  religion  and  disliked  the  Huguenots, 
but  he  never  understood  what  the  word  religion 
meant. 

Pascal  remarked  that  Epictetus  would  be  incompar- 
ably excellent  as  a  disturber  of  the  peace  of  those  who 
sought  it  in  the  outward  and  visible.  Montaigne,  on 
the  other  hand,  would  bring  down  the  pride  of  the  self- 
opinionated,  and  those  who  trusted  to  human  knowledge, 
and  would  convince  them  of  the  very  small  amount  of 
illumination  afforded  to  the  human  mind  :  "  It  is  difficult 
after  that  to  be  tempted  to  reject  mysteries  because  one 
finds  difficulties  in  them  ;  for  one's  intellect  is  so  humili- 
ated that  it  is  not  at  all  disposed  to  pronounce  whether 


PASCAL'S  FEIENDS  223 

or  not  the  Incarnation  and  the  Mystery  of  the  Eucharist 
are  possible." 

And,  says  Nicholas  Fontaine,  these  two  great  people, 
De  Saci  and  Pascal,  came  to  a  perfect  agreement  on  the 
subject  of  religion,  although  they  attained  their  con- 
clusion in  absolutely  different  ways. 

Pascal  was  not  unendurably  ill  at  this  time,  but  he 
was  in  a  continual  state  of  suffering,  and  traces  of  this 
are  everywhere  to  be  found  in  the  Pense'es.  As  Sainte 
Beuve  says,  "  Pascal  is  ill ;  this  must  often  be  in  our 
minds  when  we  are  reading  the  Pense'es"  and  it  is  this 
physical  suffering  which  makes  the  thought  of  the 
sufferings  of  our  Blessed  Lord  so  consoling-  to  him. 

Pascal's  two  great  friends  followed  his  example. 
They  were  the  Due  de  Roannez  and  M.  Domat.  Both 
became  friends  of  Port  Royal,  and  M.  le  Due  had  to 
bear  much  family  opposition  when  he  determined  to 
break  off  his  career.  A  servant,  the  concierge  of  his 
house  in  Paris,  made  up  his  mind  to  kill  the  tiresome 
M.  Pascal,  who  had  so  entirely  and  so  injudiciously,  as 
was  thought,  influenced  the  Due.  Happily,  Pascal, 
who  was  staying  with  M.  de  Roannez,  had  gone  out, 
and  it  is  to  be  supposed  that  second  thoughts  prevented 
the  enraged  concierge  from  another  attempt.  The 
young  convert  was  only  twenty-four.  M.  de  Roannez 
some  years  afterwards  sold  his  office  of  Governor  of 
Poitou,  and  retired  to  the  house  of  the  Oratorian 
Fathers.  He  was  worn  out  with  lawsuits  and  debts 
inherited  from  his  father,  but,  in  spite  of  all,  or  rather 
perhaps  because  of  all  this  trouble,  his  sweet  and  tender 
religious  spirit  grew  in  holiness  and  in  devotion.  M. 
Domat  was  a  friend  of  Pascal,  and  had  been  educated 
at  i the  Jesuits'  College  in  Paris;  he  had  become  a 
successful  lawyer  and  a  good  mathematician,  and  also  a 
student  of  theology.  He  was  always  held  in  great 
esteem  by  the  Port  Royalists,  and  was  Pascal's  true 
and  devoted  friend  to  the  last  day  of  the  latter's  life. 
M.  Domat  did  not  abandon  his  profession,  and  died  in 
1696  with  some  measure  of  fame  ;  he  was  one  of  those 
good  and  worthy  men  who  "  serve  God  in  the  state." 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  PERSECUTION — THE  PROVINCIAL 
LETTERS   (1652) 

BEFORE  we  enter  on  the  subject  of  the  famous 
Provincial  Letters,  we  must  go  back  a  little  in  our 
history  and  once  more  visit  the  well-beloved  society  of 
Port  Royal. 

Anne  Eugenie  Arnauld  died  in  1652,  thirty-eight 
years  since  that  happy  day  when,  as  she  said,  she  could 
not  weep  for  her  sister's  departure  to  Maubuisson,  she 
was  in  such  a  glow  of  happiness  at  finding  herself 
professed. 

Anne  Eugenie  is  one  of  the  most  attractive  of  the 
Port  Royalist  nuns  of  the  second  order.  She  is  a  little 
overshadowed  by  her  sisters  Agnes  and  Angelique,  and 
by  her  niece  Angelique  de  St  Jean,  but  she  possessed 
striking  qualities.  She  had,  as  we  have  seen,  aided  in 
the  reform  of  Maubuisson  and  of  Lys,  and  she  had, 
much  against  her  own  inclinations,  acted  for  many  years 
as  mistress  of  the  children  sent  to  Port  Royal  to  be 
educated.  She  seems  to  have  been  a  peculiarly  tender 
and  affectionate  mistress  ;  we  saw  in  the  chapter  on  the 
schools  of  Port  Royal  how  the  aim  of  all  those  who 
laboured  in  them  was  to  preserve  the  baptismal  inno- 
cence of  their  charges.  This  Anne  Eugenie  always  put 
first,  and  she  lived  and  worked  and  prayed  for  her 
children,  considering  their  faults  as  hers,  and  showing 
herself  a  true  pupil  of  St  Cyran.  And  her  affection 
was  returned ;  the  greatest  punishment  which  could  be 
inflicted  on  the  children  whom  Anne  instructed  was 
that  she  should  refuse  to  be  present  at  their  recreation. 

224 


TEOUBLES  225 

Even  Port  Royal  in  these  days  had  its  "  tracasseries." 
A  certain  Sceur  Flavie  Passart,  of  whom  we  shall  hear 
much  in  later  times,  set  herself  to  annoy  the  patient 
Anne  Eugenie  and  to  complain  of  her  gentleness.  In 
1640  Anne  ceased  to  be  mistress  of  the  children,  and 
for  a  long  time  before  her  death  she  was  in  very  bad 
health.  She  was  much  loved  and  sought  after  by 
many,  and  the  strict  Carmelites  looked  on  her  as  a 
saint.  The  Princesse  de  Guemenee,  in  the  days  when 
she  was  devoutly  inclined  and  was  often  at  Port  Royal, 
had  a  peculiar  affection  for  Anne  Eugenie. 

Anne  passed  away  while  as  yet  there  had  been  only 
the  grumblings  of  the  storm  which  was  so  soon  to  fall  on 
Port  Royal.  Mere  Angelique  writes  : — 

:<  You  have  guessed  rightly,  my  dearest  Sister,  it  was 
my  sister  Anne  who  went  to  God  on  New  Year's  Day. 
I  thank  you  most  humbly  for  the  prayers  which  you 
said  for  her  :  I  hope  that  she  will  repay  your  love  in  the 
presence  of  God,  where  we  have  every  reason  to  hope 
that  she  has  obtained  mercy.  Our  house  was  much 

S'ieved  at  losing  her,  and  comforted  by  her  holy  death, 
od  called  her  to  the  Religious  Life  when  she  was 
twenty- four,  and  since  then  she  has  had  grace  from  Him 
never  to  look  back,  ever  to  advance  in  the  work  of 
conversion.  We  were  six  sisters,  now  only  our  Mother 
Agnes  and  I  remain ;  we  cannot  last  long.  She  has 
had  a  heavy  cold  since  I  came,  but  she  is  better,  thank 
God.  Everything  is  in  His  hands.  Blessed  are  those 
who  have  no  other  wish  or  care  save  that  of  preparing 
for  the  hour  when  the  Divine  Master,  the  loving  Bride- 

froom  will  come  to  call  them.     Pray  to  him,  dear  Sister, 
beg  you,  that  He  will  give  me  this  grace.     I  will  ask 
the  same  for  you,  whose  I  am  with  my  whole  heart." 

In  1652  the  Jesuits  uttered  some  malicious  slanders. 
A  certain  Pere  Brisacier,  who  had  much  resented  his 
failure  to  procure  the  condemnation  of  Arnauld's 
Frequente  Communion,  published  in  1651  a  detestable 
book  called  Jansenisme  confondu,  containing  the  most 
flagrant  calumnies  against  the  Port  Royal  nuns,  in 
which  occurred  the  expressions,  "foolish  virgins,"  "anti- 
sacramentarians,"  and  so  on.  Mme.  D'Aumont  felt  it 


226  THE  BEGINNING  OF   PERSECUTION 

as  a  matter  of  obligation  to  write  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris,  more  especially  as  M.  de  Callaghan,  who  had 
excited  the  particular  hatred  of  the  Jesuits,  had  been 
given  the  living  which  he  held  through  her  own  recom- 
mendation. Mere  Angelique  herself  also  wrote  in  the 
respectful  and  dignified  terms  which  she  always 
employed ;  and  the  Archbishop  published  a  strong 
condemnation  of  Brisacier,  which  censure  he  sent  to 
Mere  Angelique's  brother,  the  Bishop  of  Angers.  The 
foes  of  Port  Royal  were  not  easily  put  to  shame  or  to 
silence.  One  Father  now  wrote  a  book  to  prove  that 
Port  Royal  held  views  similar  to  those  of  Calvin  on 
the  Eucharist ;  and  the  absurd  and  malignant  story 
of  a  plot  made  in  1621  by  St  Cyran  and  Antoine 
Arnauld  with  three  nameless  heretics  to  destroy  Chris- 
tianity and  establish  a  sort  of  Deism,  was  revived. 
Antoine  was  nine  years  old  in  1621,  but  the  Father  had 
no  misgiving  about  dates,  and  wished  to  include  in  his 
charge  Agnes  and  the  other  nuns  of  Port  Royal. 

However  absurd  lies  may  be,  they  always  hurt  it 
those  who  utter  them  are  numerous  and  impudent. 
Mud  plentifully  scattered  often  sticks,  and  there  were 
many  good  people,  who,  not  unnaturally,  thought  that  a 
society  attacked  by  such  eminent  persons  as  the  Jesuits 
could  not  be  entirely  blameless. 

In  1654,  Angelique,  who  had  been  four  times  elected 
Abbess  for  periods  of  three  years,  retired,  and  the  choice 
fell  on  Marie  des  Anges,  who  not  so  many  years  before 
had  returned  from  Maubuisson,  begging  for  the  very 
lowest  place.  She  was,  perhaps,  of  all  those  trained 
by  Mere  Angelique,  the  one  most  imbued  by  the 
Mother's  spirit.  Angelique's  letter  to  one  of  the  Sisters 
is  worth  quoting.  The  Sister  in  question  had  appar- 
ently disliked  the  change  of  Superiors,  and  to  her 
Angelique  wrote  : — 

"It  is  not  for  us  to  make  comparisons  between  the 
gifts  and  graces  of  different  souls ;  but  if  we  were 
right,  I  should  venture  to  say  that  there  is  in  the  world 
no  more  loving,  humble  or  pure  a  soul  than  our  Mother's. 
And  this  makes  me  hope  that  God  will  be  merciful  to 


RACINE'S  ACCOUNT  227 

us  through  her  direction.  The  uniformity  of  her  life,  in 
the  thirty- nine  years  she  has  been  a  nun,  unshaken  by 
any  change,  is  a  very  rare  thing,  especially  in  trials  such 
as  she  has  experienced  ;  no  one  could  ever  say  anything 
of  her  except  that  she  was  a  holy  woman.  It  is  just 
weak  human  nature,  dear  Sister,  to  say  what  you  say  ; 
and  believe  me,  it  is  a  very  good  thing  to  change  the 
Mother,  so  that  obedience  may  result  not  from  custom, 
respect  of  human  affection,  but  from  simply  paying 
attention  only  to  God  and  His  Divine  authority  in 
Superiors ;  that  is  what  sanctifies  our  obedience  and 
makes  it  worthy  of  God  ;  otherwise  we  should  often  be 
deceived,  thinking  we  ought  to  obey  God,  but  really 
following  our  own  reason,  our  own  inclination,  which 
pay  more  heed  to  the  creature  than  to  God.  I  assure 
you  I  shall  serve  you  better  by  obeying  than  by  com- 
manding. One  is  never  free  from  the  law  of  charity  : 
...  I  have  greater  need  than  you  have  for  humility, 
for  all  the  mistakes  I  have  made  about  you  and  all  our 
Sisters;  may  God  renew  us  all  by  His  mercy.  We 
must,  dearest  one,  bear  the  care  of  one  another  cheer- 
fully. .  .  .  Let  us  all  be  united  to  God,  and  then  we 
shall  be  united  to  one  another  and  be  so  happy." 

Racine,  in  his  account  of  Port  Royal,  explains  the 
possession  which  the  bitterness  against  Port  Royal 
obtained  over  the  whole  Society  of  Jesus,  by  observing 
that  Jesuits  always  go  to  Jesuits  for  information. 
Young  men  entered  the  Society  very  early,  and  heard 
from  their  instructors  how  wicked  the  Port  Royalists 
were,  and  in  turn  they  in  good  faith  handed  on  the 
information.  We  have  seen  the  same  tendency  in  the 
English  Church. 

"  Besides,"  says  Racine,  "it  is  ^  the  vice  of  most 
members  of  a  religious  society  to  believe  that  they  can 
never  do  wrong  when  they  are  defending  the  honour  of 
their  Community.  This  honour  is  a  species  of  idolatry, 
and  they  think  everything,  justice,  common  sense,  truth, 
can  be  sacrificed  to  it.  It  may  be  constantly  said  of 
the  Jesuits,"  he  goes  on,  "that  this  fault  is  more  usual 
among  them  than  among  any  other  society  ;  it  has 
reached  even  this  point,  that  some  of  their  casuists 
have  advanced  this  horrible  maxim  that  a  'religious' 


228  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PEESECUTION 

can  conscientiously  calumniate  and  even  kill  all  persons 
whom  he  thinks  injurious  to  his  society.' ' 

And  then  Racine  points  out  that  there  was  a 
literary  jealousy.  For  the  Jesuits  had  been  regarded  as 
the  learned  and  educational  order  of  the  Catholic  world, 
and  now  Port  Royal  ventured  to  dispute  their 
precedence. 

But,  in  spite  of  the  Jesuits,  Port  Royal  was  still 
held  in  great  esteem  at  this  time  in  many  quarters. 
Mere  Angelique  returned  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs 
in  1653,  and,  as  she  wrote  to  the  Queen  of  Poland, 
there  were  twenty-five  "  Solitaires,"  or,  as  she  called  them 
"Hermites,"  at  Port  Royal,  and  a  large  number  of 
children  who  were  being  educated. 

Madame  de  Sable,  of  whom  we  shall  have  something 
to  say  later  on,  built  a  house  adjoining  Port  Royal  de 
Paris,  and  Mile,  de  la  Roche  Guyon,  the  grand-daughter 
of  the  Due  de  Liancourt,  with  other  well-born  girls,  was 
being  educated  by  the  nuns. 

Mere  Angelique's  letters  to  the  Queen  of  Poland  are 
a  perfect  mine  of  information  concerning  Port  Royal. 
She  writes  in  1654 : — 

"I  do  not  know  if  a  certain  Almanac  has  been  sent 
to  your  kingdom ;  it  is  called  the  Confusion  of  the 
Jansenists,  and  above  sixteen  thousand  copies  have  been 
circulated  through  France.  Not  only  are  they  (the 
Jansenists)  supposed  to  be  excommunicated  by  our 
holy  father  the  Pope — what  is  too  horrible,  they  are 
classed  among  Huguenots!" 

It  is  tempting  to  quote  more  of  Mere  Angelique's 
letters.  The  Princesse  de  Guemen^e's  temporary 
conversion  had  broken  down,  and  there  are  frequent 
allusions  to  her  in  Ang^lique's  letters  to  the  Queen  of 
Poland  ;  there  is  one  to  the  truant  and  disappointing, 
but  always  beloved  friend,  herself: — 

"I  have  heard,  Madame,  what  you  have  been 
pleased  to  do  in  this  last  affair,  and  how  strongly  how 
affectionately,  you  have  struggled  to  prevent  the 
oppression  with  which  we  are  threatened.  I  am  not  at 


THE  FIVE  PROPOSITIONS  229 

all  surprised.  ...  I  may  venture  to  say  to  you,  Madame, 
that  I  was  glad  for  you  as  for  ourselves,  in  the  hope 
that  God  will  repay  you  and  reward  you  for  your  strong 
and  constant  protection  of  those  whom  you  believe 


innocent." 


The  outbreak  of  rancour  against  Port  Royal  was 
due  to  a  certain  Cornet,  who  as  far  back  as  1 649  had 
submitted  seven  propositions  to  the  Sorbonne  for 
examination.  He  did  not  state  that  they  were  taken 
from  Jansenius'  book,  but  there  was  no  doubt  that  they 
were  meant  to  reflect  on  what  was  beginning-  to  be 
considered  a  school  of  thought  originated  by  Jansenius. 
Seventy  members  of  the  Sorbonne  protested  against 
Cornet's  proceedings,  and  succeeded  at  least  in  rejecting- 
Cornet's  seventh  proposition  and  substituting"  another 
for  discussion,  drawn  from  a  very  different  source. 
However,  the  Parlement  of  Paris  interfered  and  the 
discussion  was  forbidden.  But,  as  was  to  be  supposed, 
the  matter  was  not  allowed  to  drop.  M.  Habert,  who 
had  recently  been  made  Bishop  of  Vabres,  wrote  a 
long  letter  to  the  Pope,  asking  that  the  five  proposi- 
tions might  be  condemned.  In  this  letter,  Jansenius 
and  his  book  are  mentioned,  yet  it  is  never  clearly 
stated  that  the  five  propositions  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Augustinus.  This  letter  was  signed  by  twenty-five 
bishops.  The  following  are  the  propositions  : — 

1.  Some  commands  of  God  are  impossible,  even  to 
just  persons  who  wish  and  who  try  to  keep  them  in 
proportion  to  the  strength  which  they  possess  at  the 
time ;  and  grace  that  would  make  it  possible  to  obey  is 
lacking. 

2.  In  fallen  man,  interior  grace  is  never  resisted. 

3.  In  order  to  deserve  blame  or  praise  in  fallen  man, 
there  is  no  need  for  freedom  of  action,  but  only  for 
freedom  from  constraint. 

4.  The  semi- Pelagians  admit  the  necessity  of  interior 
prevenient  grace  for  every  single  action,  even  for  the 
beginnings  of  faith,  and  they  were  heretical  only  in  that 
they  imagined  that  grace  was  of  such  a  nature  that  the 
will  of  man  could  either  resist  or  consent  to  it. 


230  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PERSECUTION 

5.  It  is  a  semi- Pelagian  error  to  say  that  Jesus 
Christ  died  or  that  He  shed  His  blood,  for  all  men. 

The  sending  of  this  letter  was  not  long  a  secret,  and 
there  was  a  great  deal  of  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what 
was  to  be  done.  A  good  many  bishops  and  clergy 
wished  that  no  notice  should  be  taken  ;  by  all  means  let 
these  propositions  be  condemned ;  no  one  wished  to 
defend  them.  But  others  thought  that  a  clear  manifesto 
should  be  sent  to  the  Pope,  and  these  counsels  prevailed. 
A  letter  signed  by  Henri  Arnauld,  Bishop  of  Angers, 
and  others,  was  duly  sent  to  the  Pope,  through  the 
hands  of  M.  de  St  Armour,  in  which  they  expressed 
their  strong  disapproval  of  the  first  document. 

The  Pope  had  directed  that  a  Congregation  should 
be  formed  for  the  consideration  of  the  disputed  points, 
and  the  meeting  of  this  body  dragged  on  its  weary  way 
through  some  six  months.  Pope  Innocent  X.  was  very 
kind  to  what  may  be  termed  the  Augustinian  party,  for 
both  sides  sent  deputies ;  but  the  Augustinians  never- 
theless found  great  difficulty  in  ever  seeing  him,  or  in 
persuading  him  to  hear  or  to  read  what  they  had  to  say. 
He  did  allow  them  to  plead  before  him  once,  but  what 
they  had  wished  was  a  discussion,  and  this  was  refused. 
Two  members  of  the  band  sent  by  the  Augustinian 
Bishops  harangued  the  Pope  for  four  hours. 

The  Abbe  de  Lalane,  whose  discourse  was  printed, 
and  from  its  form  was  known  as  the  Ecrit  a  trois 
Colonnesy  dwelt  on  St  Augustine,  whose  authority  he  said 
had  been  attacked,  and  he  interpreted  the  five  proposi- 
tions, first  in  a  Catholic,  then  in  a  Calvinist,  and  finally 
in  a  Molinist  sense.  For  a  third  school  had  arisen — the 
Molinist,  so  called  from  the  Spanish  monk  Molina,  who 
had  published  a  treatise  entitled  The  Harmony  of  Free 
Will  and  Grace,  in  which  he  certainly  showed  consider- 
able leanings  to  semi-Pelagianism,  and  roused  the  wrath 
of  the  Dominicans,  who  perceived  that  the  teaching  of 
the  Summa  Theologia  of  St  Thomas  Aquinas  was  not 
in  agreement  with  Molina. 

Molina's  treatise  was  never  condemned,  however,  in 
consequence  of  the  efforts  of  the  Jesuits.  Another 


THE  BULL  OF  POPE  INNOCENT   231 

Augustinian  deputy,  Pere  Des  Mares,  dwelt  on  effica- 
cious grace.  They  had  golden  eloquence,  the  Pope  said, 
but  nevertheless  he  decided  against  them — not  without 
hesitation,  however.  Innocent,  who  disliked  theological 
subtleties,  was  very  unwilling  to  issue  a  condemnation. 

One  of  the  members  of  the  Congregation,  Pallavicini, 
says  :  "  When  the  Pope  came  to  the  edge  of  the  chasm, 
and  measured  the  greatness  of  the  leap  with  his  eyes, 
he  held  back,  and  was  not  to  be  moved  to  any  further 
advance." 

But  the  Pope's  scruples  were  not  shared  by  members 
of  the  Congregation.  Cardinal  Chigi,  soon  to  be  known 
as  Alexander  VII.,  persuaded  him  to  issue  the  Bull  in 
which  the  five  propositions  were  condemned  as  heretical, 
and — what  was  tolerably  significant — the  Bull  began  in 
this  way : — 

"  Having  read  the  Augustinus  of  Cornelius  Jansenius, 
and  knowing  that  discussions  have  arisen  chiefly  in 
France  on  five  of  his  propositions." 

The  deputies  of  the  Augustinian  party  presented 
themselves  to  the  Pontiff,  and  ventured  to  express  a 
hope  that  the  Pope  (who  was  exceedingly  amiable ;  "les 
caressa  extremement,"  wrote  the  French  ambassador) 
did  not  wish  in  this  Bull  to  impugn  the  doctrine  of 
efficacious  Grace,  or  St  Augustine's  teaching.  To 
which  His  Holiness  replied,  "Questo  e  certo." 

Now  we  enter  on  the  long  story  of  persecution. 
Now  Port  Royal's  evil  days  are  to  begin.  Before  we 
enter  on  this  sad  chapter,  let  us  examine  the  nature  of 
the  controversy. 

The  doctrine  of  grace,  that  is  the  watchword  of  the 
one  school.  Man's  free  will  is  the  watchword  of  the 
other. 

But  no  one  can  read  the  history  of  the  controversy 
and  not  see  that  both  sides  have  some  truth  in  their 
contending  statements.  In  fact,  the  Jesuits'  theology 
was — so  long  as  they  did  not  formulate  too  much — 
mainly  right.  The  Jansenists' — when  pushed  to  its 
logical  consequences — hopelessly  wrong.  For  they  cut 


232  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PERSECUTION 

away  the  ground  from  moral  responsibility,  and,  as  has 
been  admirably  put,  they  were  but  half- Angustinians  : — 

"They  held  Augustine's  doctrine  of  grace  and 
predestination  .  .  .  but  they  did  not  hold  that  sublime 
belief — shall  we  say  that  sublime  philosophy — which 
lay  at  the  bottom  of  their  master's  thought — the  belief 
that  God  fills  all  things  ;  that  the  beauty  of  nature,  the 
affections  of  the  heart,  the  truth  of  science,  the  light  of 
intelligence,  all  proclaim  to  him  that  hath  an  ear — we 
made  not  ourselves.  He  made  us  Who  liveth  for  ever. 
Without  these  thoughts — and  it  has  often  been 
divorced  from  them — the  doctrine  of  predestination  is  a 
nightmare."1 

We  have  had  occasion  to  notice  this  aspect  in  the 
Port  Royal  teaching — in  St  Cyran  and  others — this 
absolute  failure  to  see  the  presence  of  God  in  the  world. 
They  were  not  far  removed  sometimes  from  thoughts 
perilously  near  Manichaeism,  in  their  violent  denuncia- 
tion of  marriage,  of  life  in  the  world.  They  had  little 
joy  in  the  Lord ;  they  could  not  realise  the  working  of 
God  in  all  good  things — in  the  lives  of  good  men  who 
lived  before  Christ.  Yet  they  did  grasp  one  fragment 
of  the  whole  truth,  the  absolute  need  of  God's  grace. 
It  is  a  truth  which  needs  to  be  asserted  again  and 
again.  And  there  is  truth  in  the  conception  of  souls 
wholly  possessed  by  grace,  who,  because  they  have 
wholly  surrendered  their  wills  to  God,  are  entirely 
dominated  by  Him,  and  who  sin  not,  i.e.  do  not  live  in 
sin.  "  Of  certain  quite  visibly  elect  souls,  at  all  events, 
the  theory  of  irresistible  grace  might  seem  the  almost 
necessary  explanation,"  says  Mr  Pater,  in  his  essay  on 
Pascal. 

And  the  Jesuits'  theology  is  true  on  its  side.  They 
saw  the  exceeding  love  of  God ;  they  saw  that  it  was 
abundantly  possible  for  man  to  sin  against  that  love ; 
they  were  anxious  to  shut  no  one  out.  Where  they 
went  wrong,  as  it  seems,  was  in  their  willingness  to 
lower  the  Christian  standard ;  to  accept  any  sort  of 
miserable  excuse ;  to  allow  holiness  and  the  require- 

1  Unity  in  Diversity^  by  Dr  Bigg,  pp.  60-61. 


THE  CATHOLIC  DOCTRINE  OF  GRACE    233 

ments  of  God's  law  to  be  whittled  down  to  a 
mechanical  reception  of  the  Sacraments,  and  a  repent- 
ance which,  as  all  thinking-  men  perceived,  needed  to  be 
repented  of. 

The  Catholic  Church  has  never  committed  itself  to 
any  Pelagian  or  semi- Pelagian  doctrine ;  what  it  has 
always  taught  is  that  all  movements  of  good  in  the  soul, 
inside  or  outside  the  Church,  are  of  God ;  as  each 
supply  of  grace  is  received,  so  we  receive  grace  for 
grace,  but  all  of  God,  from  God,  through  God. 

"  Grant  to  us,  Lord,  the  spirit  to  think  and  to  do 
always  such  things  as  be  rightful,"  exactly  expresses  the 
right  attitude  of  soul.  "It  is  God  which  worketh  in 
you  both  to  will  and  to  work."  It  is  the  failure  to 
realise  that  God  the  Holy  Ghost  is  working  always,  in 
all  places,  and  in  all  men,  which  makes  it  possible  to 
hold  the  semi- Pelagian  view  that  we  can  turn  to  God  of 
our  own  selves. 

But,  as  has  been  admirably  put  in  Dr  Mason's 
Faith  of  the  Gospel,  "  Grace  never  supersedes  the  man's 
self-determination.  It  would  be  totally  at  variance  with 
its  purpose,  were  it  to  compel  men  to  act  in  a  certain 
way,  independent  of  their  own  choice.  For  it  is  not 
God's  object  merely  to  get  right  things  done,  but  to 
get  holy  characters  established  ;  and  the  only  notion  we 
can  form  of  a  holy  character  is  that  of  a  being-  who 
always  freely  chooses  holiness." 

The  late  Canon  Bernard  says,  in  his  admirable  book 
The  Central  Teaching  of  Jesus  Christ :  "Zeal  for  the 
truths  of  the  grace  and  the  faithfulness  of  God  has  led 
some  to  set  aside  the  very  nature  of  the  being  who  is  to 
be  the  subject  of  them  ;  but  doctrines  of  irresistible  and 
indefectible  grace  are  obviously  and  absolutely  irre- 
concilable with  these  words  of  Jesus  (believe  in  Me) 
which  call  for  conscious  choice  and  deliberate  inten- 
tion .  .  .  and  contemplate  possible  perils  in  regard  to 
the  relations  which  His  people  are  to  maintain  with 
Himself." 

The  Council  of  Trent  maintained  the  two  principles, 
Grace  on  the  one  hand  is  omnipotent,  and  no  one  can 


234  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PERSECUTION 

enter  on  the  way  of  Salvation  unless  he  be  called,  and 
yet  man  is  free  to  reject  or  accept  grace.1 

On  the  publication  of  Innocent  X.'s  Bull,  the  Jesuits 
gave  to  the  world  the  horrible  Almanac,  of  which  it 
was  a  great  pity  that  M.  de  Saci  took  any  notice.  It  is 
to  this  epoch  that  belongs  the  story  of  a  bishop,  who 
was  reckoned  as  of  the  Molinist  school,  entering  a 
monastery  as  dinner  was  going  on  with  the  usual 
reading  aloud.  The  reader  uttered  the  words,  "It  is 
God  which  worketh  in  us  to  will  and  to  work."  And 
the  prelate  indignantly  asked  what  was  being  read. 
We  are  ignorant  as  to  his  comment  on  St  Paul. 

In  spite  of  some  resistance,  and  a  long  wordy  war, 
and  negotiations  with  Cardinal  Mazarin,  the  Bull  had 
to  be  received  and  published  in  France  ;  and  there  was  a 
burst  of  calumny.  M.  d'Andilly  wrote  to  the  Cardinal, 
and  M.  Le  Maitre  published  an  account  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  "Solitaires,"  who  were  described  by  the 
Jesuits  as  the  special  defenders  of  the  Jansenist  heresy. 
He  gave  the  names  of  those  who  were  living  in  retire- 
ment, described  their  employment  and  the  way  in  which 
they  lived. 

"  It  is  not  a  Community,"  wrote  M.  Le  Maitre, 
"  there  are  no  vows,  no  other  rule  than  of  the  Gospel, 
no  bond  save  that  of  Catholic  love ;  no  private  nor 
public  aim,  save  this — to  win  heaven.  ...  It  is  only  a 
place  of  retreat,  ...  to  which  no  one  comes  except  of 
his  own  free  choice,  and  in  which  no  one  stays  except 
the  Spirit  of  God  hold  him  in  it.  ...  If,"  he  goes  on  in 
words  which  breathe  the  indignation  of  a  lofty  and 
a  holy  soul,  "if  it  is  a  crime  to  be  united  by  such  a 
holy  love,  to  have  one  heart  and  one  soul,  to  regard 
interest  in  worldly  matters  as  alien  to  the  spirit  of 
retirement  .  .  .  well  it  is  the  crime  of  the  earliest  of 
the  faithful." 

This  memoir,  of  which  the  above  short  quotation 
will  give  some  idea,  appeared  in  1654.  Meanwhile  the 
redoubtable  Antoine  Arnauld  kept  silence,  worked  with 
his  nephews  at  the  translation  of  the  New  Testament 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  IV. 


M.  DE  LIANCOURT  235 

and  at  the  Lives  of  the  Saints,  and  collected  materials 
for  a  work  which  Antoine  Arnauld  had  undertaken  at 
the  request  of  the  Port  Royal  Sisters  on  La  PerpetuiU 
de  la  Foi.  This  was  to  be  a  collection  of  extracts  from 
the  writings  of  the  Fathers  on  the  Eucharist. 

In  1655,  however,  Antoine's  silence  was  broken. 
The  first  real  note  of  persecution  was  struck.  M.  le 
Due  de  Liancourt,  who  was  singled  out  in  a  particularly 
offensive  manner,  was  a  man  of  high  character,  known 
however  to  be  a  great  friend  of  the  Port  Royalists. 
His  wife,  Jeanne  de  Schomberg,  was  the  daughter  of  the 
Marechal  de  Schomberg,1  who  had  been  a  great  friend  of 
M.  d  Andilly.  She  was  a  noble  and  high-spirited  woman, 
andhad  won  the  affection  of  her  husband,  who,  as  a  young 
man  had  sown  a  large  crop  of  wild  oats  in  the  shape 
of  duels  and  unworthy  attachments.  She  nursed  him 
tenderly  through  smallpox,  but  it  was  only  when  she 
herself  fell  ill  that  he  realised,  after  eighteen  years  of 
married  life,  how  dear  his  wife  had  become.  He  then 
little  by  little  gave  himself  up  to  the  life  of  religion,  and 
when  he  was  about  forty  he  adopted  finally  the  way  of 
penitence  "a  la  mode  de  Port  Royal."  D  Andilly  and 
all  "  nos  Messieurs  "  were  friends  of  M.  and  Madame  de 
Liancourt,  and  M.  le  Due  was  of  those  who  visited 
St  Cyran  at  Vincennes.  The  married  life  of  the  devout 
couple  was  one  of  true  happiness  for  many  years.  They 
had  only  one  son,  M.  de  la  Roche  Guyon,  who  was  killed 
in  battle  after  a  married  life  of  no  great  happiness. 
His  young  wife,  Madame  de  la  Roche  Guyon,  married 
again,  and  appears  to  have  looked  back  on  her  life  at 
Liancourt  with  something  like  a  shudder.  One  quite 
realises  that  the  grave  austerity  which  the  disciples  of 
Port  Royal  brought  into  their  surroundings  would  be 
most  uncongenial  to  the  conventional  great  lady  of  the 
ordinary  type.  "There  are  no  beautiful  prisons,"  said 
she  to  some  one  who  congratulated  her  on  the  beauty 
of  Liancourt. 

There  was  one  child  of  the  marriage,  a  little  daughter, 

1  The  grandfather  of  the  Duchesse  de  Liancourt  settled  in  France  in 
the  time  of  Henri  III. 


236  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PERSECUTION 

who  was  sent  to  Port  Royal.  Mere  Angelique  mentions' 
the  little  girl  in  a  letter  to  the  Queen  of  Poland.  We 
are  anticipating*  a  little,  but  when  Mademoiselle  de  la 
Roche  Guyon  was  leaving  the  Convent  to  be  married 
to  the  Prince  de  Marsillac,  the  son  of  the  famous 
Rochefoucauld,  Mme.  de  Liancourt  wrote  for  her  some 
admirable  counsels,  which  Sainte  Beuve  compares  with 
Fenelon's  De  r Education  des  Filles.  One  sentence 
quoted  by  Sainte  Beuve  shows  the  tone  of  mind  which 
inspired  the  words:  "As  often  as  something  beautiful 
or  good  comes  in  my  way,  I  make  some  act  of  thanks- 
giving to  God,  in  my  heart,  and  an  act  of  love." 

The  little  grand-daughter  died  at  twenty-four. 
Sainte  Beuve  remarks  on  the  great  impression  his 
grandparents-in-law  had  made  on  M.  de  Marsillac. 
He  was  a  perfect  specimen  of  the  courtiers  of  Louis  XIV. 
— yet  he  nevertheless  cherished  a  tenderness  for  the 
Port  Royalists  and  gave  some  of  them  shelter  at  Lian- 
court (which  he  inherited  through  his  wife),  and  he 
always  spoke  with  respect  and  warmth  and  tenderness 
of  M.  and  Mme.  de  Liancourt. 

But  to  return — M.  de  Liancourt  when  in  Paris 
usually  made  his  confession  in  the  Church  of  St  Sulpice, 
and  one  day  in  February,  1655,  went  there  as  usual. 
When  he  had  Sfinished  his  confession,  the  priest,  M. 
Picote,  who  was  hearing  him  said  that  M.  de  Liancourt 
had  not  confessed  everything ;  that  in  his  house  he  was 
harbouring  a  heretic  in  the  shape  of  M.  1'Abbe  de 
Bourzeis  ;  that  his  grand-daughter,  Mile,  de  la  Roche 
Guyon,  was  being  brought  up  at  Port  Royal,  and  that 
he  was  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  "ces  Messieurs." 

M.  de  Liancourt,  not  feeling  that  these  things  came 
into  confession  at  all,  rose  up  and  went  quietly  away. 
But  from  this  little  bit  of  would-be  orthodoxy  on  the 
part  of  M.  Picote  resulted  the  Provincial  Letters. 

Sainte  Beuve  points  out  that  probably  M.  Olier,  the 
founder  of  the  seminary  of  St  Sulpice,  had  suggested 
M.  Picote's  action.  M.  Olier  was  one  of  the  holiest  of 
men,  and  had  tried  to  convert  M.  de  Liancourt  to  his 
own  views.  And  M.  Picote  also  was  almost  a  saint ; 


ANTOINE  AKNAULD  SPEAKS        237 

fyut,  alas,  it  was  not  the  first  nor  the  last  occasion  on 
which  holy  and  saintly  men  have  allowed  themselves  to 
persecute  their  brethren  through  some  fault  of  the 
understanding,  some  desire  to  be  more  rigid  for  truth 
than  anxious  to  find  out  "the  mind  of  Christ." 

M.  de  Bourzeis  was  a  learned  man,  one  of  the  early 
members  of  the  French  Academy,  and  a  theologian.  M. 
de  Liancourt  had  found  him  out  and  had  given  him  a 
room  in  the  Hotel  Liancourt  at  Paris.  M.  de  Bourzeis 
had  written  works  on  the  doctrine  of  grace  on  the  so- 
called  Jansenist  side.  The  Abbe"  was  destined  to  fall 
under  the  displeasure  of  Port  Royal  in  years  to  come, 
for  he  retracted  his  opinions  and  signed  the  formulary 
in  1661. 

Great  was  the  commotion  excited  by  this  affair. 
It  was  not  in  Antoine  Arnauld's  nature  to  keep  silence 
from  good  words  any  longer,  and  without  losing  much 
time  he  produced  on  the  24th  of  February  a  letter  which 
bore  this  ponderous  title  : — 

"  Lettre  d'un  Docteur  de  Sorbonne  a  une  personne 
de  condition,  sur  ce  qui  est  arrive*  depuis  peu  dans  une 
paroisse  de  Paris  a  un  Seigneur  de  Cour." 

Arnauld  pointed  out  what  seemed  obvious  enough — 
the  wrong  which  the  confessor  had  done  to  M.  de 
Liancourt.  No  one  but  heretics  could  be  refused  the 
Sacraments.  Of  course  he  went  on  to  prove  that  the 
Port  Royalists  were  most  orthodox.  "The  desire  that 
God  gives  me  more  than  ever,  to  finish  with  all  sorts  of 
disputes  and  controversies,  would  have  prevented  my 
yielding  to  the  request  you  made  to  me  to  tell  you  my 
opinion,"  begins  this  doughty  champion.  He  certainly 
had  Gascon  blood  in  his  veins,  and  irresistibly  reminds 
us  of  his  contemporaries  who  in  another  line  of 
life  swaggered  up  and  down  Paris,  breathing  pious 
hopes  that  they  would  not  be  obliged  to  fight.  Antoine 
protests  a  little  too  much,  it  would  seem. 

Naturally,  there  were  many  answers,  and  Arnauld 
replied  by  a  "  Seconde  Lettre  a  un  Due  et  Pair  [M.  de 
Luines]."  In  this  Arnauld  threw  down  the  glove  to 
his  opponents.  The  Augustinians  were  orthodox,  and 


238  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PERSECUTION 

— the  Gospels  and  the  Fathers  teach  us  that  grace  was 
wanting  to  St  Peter  when  he  failed.  Arnauld  sent  his 
book  to  the  new  Pope,  Alexander  VII.,  but  that  did  not 
prevent  his  enemies  from  at  once  bringing  it  before  the 
Syndic  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology  of  Paris. 

The  Faculty  held  numerous  meetings  from  December, 
1655,  to  January,  1656,  and  on  the  i8th  February 
Arnauld's  letter  was  censured.  He  was  not  allowed  to 
speak,  and  in  vain  tried  to  conciliate  his  opponents  by 
conceding  all  that  he  felt  he  could  conscientiously 
concede. 

In  addition,  every  bachelor  licentiate  and  doctor  of 
the  Sorbonne  was  required  to  sign  the  formula  which 
condemned  Arnauld's  two  propositions.  Antoine  re- 
ceived the  blow  with  characteristic  firmness ;  at  the 
hour  when  censure  was  being  pronounced  he  was,  as  he 
often  related  in  later  years,  walking  in  a  gallery  in  Port 
Royal,  and,  as  he  prayed,  there  came  into  his  mind  St 
Augustine's  words  in  the  commentary  on  Psalm  cxviii. : l 
"  Quia  nihil  persecuti  sunt  in  me  nisi  veritatem,  ideo 
adjuva  me,  ut  certem  pro  veritate  usque  ad  mortem." 

Antoine  Arnauld  went  into  hiding. 

It  seems  disproportionate — even  for  the  seventeenth 
century — to  set  a  persecution  on  foot  because  a  man's 
views  on  grace  did  not  satisfy  the  theological  faculty  of 
his  day.  But  Antoine  had  excellent  reasons  for  fearing 
the  Bois  de  Vincennes  or  the  Bastille,  and  he  concealed 
himself  with  M.  Le  Maitre  and  M.  Nicole,  who  came 
to  bear  him  company.  Antoine  had  many  friends,  as  is 
testified  by  the  passionate  words  of  a  "lady  of  quality," 
of  whom  Fontaine  tells  us  :  "  Would  you  like  me  to  tell 
you  where  M.  Arnauld  is  hidden?"  said  she  to  some 
agents  of  police  who  were  turning  her  house  upside 
down — "he  is  very  securely  hidden,  he  is  hidden  here," 
said  she,  laying  her  hands  on  her  heart — "take  him  if 
you  can." 

And  now  we  are  face  to  face  with  one  of  the  two 
works  by  which  Pascal  is  best  known. 

Pascal  was,  as  we  have  seen,  staying  at  Port  Royal, 

1  Ps.  cxix.  in  our  version. 


THE  PEOVINCIAL  LETTEES  239 

and  some  days  before  Antoine  Arnauld's  final  condem- 
nation, the  latter,  Pascal,  Nicole,  and  one  or  two  others 
were  discussing  the  affair;  a  general  opinion  was 
expressed  that  something  should  be  published  in 
Arnauld's  defence.  Arnauld  tried  to  write  a  tract 
or  essay,  but  when  he  read  it  to  the  little  circle  it 
fell  very  flat.  Arnauld  turning  to  Pascal,  said  at  once  : 
"Since  this  won't  do,  you  are  young,  you  might  do 
something."  And  so  Pascal  did  do  something,  and  the 
result  was  the  first  of  the  Provincial  Letters  : 

"  Lettre  escrit  a  un  Provincial  par  un  de  ses  amis, 
sur  le  sujet  des  disputes  presentes  de  la  Sorbonne"  is 
the  exact  title. 

The  first  letter  appeared  in  January,  1656,  and  the 
second  and  third  quickly  followed.  In  all  there  are 
eighteen,  and  few  writings  have  been  greeted  with  such 
a  burst  of  praise,  have  been  read  with  such  amusement 
and  appreciation,  and  have  maintained  so  foremost  a 
place  among  the  classics  of  the  world.  Masterpieces  of 
irony,  and  of  "le  beau  style/'  but  masterpieces  also  of 
that  zeal  for  righteousness  which  appears  in  the  later 
letters  in  burning  words,  which  the  lapse  of  years  and 
the  change  in  men's  ways  of  thought  have  in  no  wise 
cooled. 

Pascal's  sister  Gilberte,  Mme.  Pe"rier,  wrote  of 
him  : — 

"He  possessed  a  natural  eloquence  which  gave  him 
a  wonderful  facility  in  saying  what  he  wished  to  say ; 
but  in  addition  he  made  use  of  certain  rules  which 
up  to  that  time  were  not  generally  known,  and  used 
them  to  such  advantage  that  not  only  did  he  say  that 
which  he  wished  to  say,  but  he  also  said  it  just  in  the 
way  he  wished,  and  thus  his  utterance  produced  the 
effect  which  he  desired." 

Mme.  Pe"rier  had  certainly  the  critical  faculty  ;  what 
can  better  express  all  that  we  mean  by  style  than  her 
words  : — To  say  what  one'  wishes  to  say  and  to  say  it 
as  we  wish  to  say  it,  and  finally  to  produce  by  our 
written  word  exactly  the  effect  we  wish.  These  are 
three  steps,  those  who  mount  them  (and  they  are  few) 


240  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PEESECUTION 

have  acquired  the  " style"  of  which  one  of  our  greatest 
critics  once  said  to  a  friend,  "  Have  something-  to  say, 
and  say  it  as  clearly  as  you  can.  That  is  the  only 
secret  of 'style/"1 

And  Pascal  had  this  "  style"  in  unsurpassed  degree, 
and  in  addition  he  was  endowed  with  imagination  and 
the  gift  of  terrible  irony,  and  the  power  of  personifying 
his  ideas  and  breathing  life  into  them.  Pascal  had 
enlisted  for  ever  the  sympathy  of  the  moral  sense  of 
mankind.  The  abstruse  problems  of  theology  have 
little  interest  for  most  men,  but  when  these  problems 
are  translated  into  the  living,  breathing,  everyday 
questions  which  touch  us  all,  by  a  writer  who  was  not 
and  who  never  pretended  to  be  a  theologian,  he  who 
runs  may  read,  and  no  one  who  reads  with  an  unpre- 
judiced mind  can  fail  to  be  delighted  intellectually 
by  the  extraordinary  powers  of  Pascal,  and  shocked 
morally  at  the  astounding  system  of  casuistry  which  he 
lays  bare  before  us. 

Port  Royal  owes  in  great  measure  its  attractiveness 
and  interest  to  this  fact,  that  Port  Royal  stood  for 
morality,  for  truth,  for  all  that  makes  virtue  possible, 
and  gives  a  man  courage  to  lose  his  life  that  he  may  gain 
it.  And  the  Jesuits  shocked  and  revolted  the  moral 
sense  of  mankind  because  their  system  stood  for 
casuistry  of  the  worst  description.  In  one  sense  a 
Christian  casuistry  is  highly  necessary,  and  greatly  is  it 
to  be  wished  that  a  wise,  liberal,  and  holy  Christian 
exposition  of  this  subject  were  written.  Christian 
ethics,  Christian  living,  right  and  wrong,  are  not 
absolutely  simple  matters  when  men  have  outgrown 
childhood.  But,  as  M.  Boutroux  says  in  his  book  on 
Pascal,  "They  [the  Jesuits]  were  preoccupied  with  the 
adaptation  of  the  Eternal  Laws  of  God  to  the  will  and 
the  ever-changing  needs  of  individuals." 

It  is  much  to  be  lamented  that  a  society  which  has 
for  its  founder  Ignatius  Loyola,  and  which  numbers 

1  Quoted  of  Mr  Matthew  Arnold,  in  Collections  and  Recollections, 
by  Mr  George  Russell. 


PASCAL'S  FIEST  LETTER  241 

among  its  members  such  men  as  Ravignan  and  Tyrrell,1 
should  have  ever  appeared  to  countenance  such  a 
system  as  Escobar's,  or  should  have  been  defended  by 
such  weak  partisans  as  those  who  attempted  to  cross 
swords  with  Pascal. 

Anything  more  unlike  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  than  the 
saying's  and  the  system  taught  by  certain  members  of 
the  Society  cannot  be  imagined.  And  there  has  never 
been  any  successful  attempt  to  disprove  Pascal's  words. 
Of  course  Pascal  was  not  entirely  fair ;  a  one-sided 
statement,  however  clear,  is  not,  and  never  can  be  so. 
The  great  majority  of  Jesuits  certainly  were  not 
disciples  of  Escobar,  nor  were  they  the  first  or  only 
casuists.  As  Dean  Church  says,  "the  charge  was  not 
that  the  Jesuit  institute  had  not  great  virtues,  but  that 
it  had  also  great  sins."  For,  as  Bossuet,  who  was  no 
friend  of  Port  Royal,  said  in  1700,  the  "partie  de  la 
morale  relachee  "  was  a  real  danger. 

To  sum  it  up.  The  Lord  long  ago  said  to  those 
who  would  be  His  disciples  that  they  must  take  up  the 
Cross,  that  the  way  that  led  to  life  was  narrowr.  Those 
who  are  of  the  lax  and  indulgent  class  of  Christians — 
Jesuits  or  others — say  exactly  the  contrary. 

Pascal's  first  letter  treats  first  of  Arnauld's  condem- 
nation. He  writes,  that  naturally  so  many  meetings  of 
the  Faculty  of  Theology  led  him  to  believe  that  some- 
thing very  important  was  about  to  be  discussed.  Not 
at  all.  Two  questions  were  discussed.  The  one  of 
fact  ("fait"),  the  other  of  "droit." 

After  a  discussion  on  "fait"  and  "droit,"  follows  a 
dialogue  between  a  Jansenist,  a  Thomist,  a  Molinist. 
From  one  to  the  other  runs  poor  M.  Louis  Montalte 
(the  name  Pascal  takes)  to  question  them  on  the  subject 
of  grace,  and  what  they  call  "grace  prochaine,"  or 
proximate  grace.  Is  this  word  in  the  Bible  ?  asked 
the  perplexed  inquirer.  "No."  In  the  writings  of  the 
Fathers  or  in  the  Councils,  or  is  it  pronounced  by  any 
Pope?  "No."  Is  it  in  St  Thomas  (Aquinas)?  "No." 

1  Since  this  was  written  Father  Tyrrell  has,  we  believe,  withdrawn 
from  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

Q 


242  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PERSECUTION 

Well  then  why  is  it  necessary  to  talk  of  proximate 
grace  ? 

'You  will  either  pronounce  this  word,"  was  the 
united  verdict,  "  or  you  will  be  a  heretic,  and  M.  Arnauld 
is  a  heretic  too." 

It  is  impossible  not  to  be  intensely  diverted  even 
now  by  Pascal's  first  letter.  He  ends  :  "  Je  vous  laisse 
cependant  dans  la  liberte  de  venir  pour  le  mot  de  *  pro- 
chain  '  ou  non,  car  j'aime  trop  mon  prochain  pour  le 
persecuter  sous  ce  pretexte." 

One  feels  the  religious  world,  the  Theological  Faculty, 
ought  to  have  been  laughed  into  sober  sense  by  this 
and  the  following  letters.  But  learning,  wit,  a  match- 
less style,  are  powerless  when  those  who  are  to  be 
persuaded  are  stupid  and  deficient  in  charity. 

Pascal  followed  up  his  first  letter  very  quickly ;  he 
was,  one  sees,  full  of  keen  enjoyment.  He  had  dis- 
covered new  powers,  and  it  had  perhaps  first  dawned 
on  him  that  he  was  to  be  not  only  Pascal  the  man  of 
science,  but  Pascal  the  writer,  the  man  who  was  almost 
the  creator  of  French  prose. 

No  one  suspected  him  to  be  the  author  of  this  letter, 
which  had  somewhat  vexed  the  righteous  soul  of 
M.  Singlin ;  no  doubt  Pascal  had  something  too  much 
of  the  wisdom  of  this  world,  quite  to  satisfy  M.  de 
St  Cyran's  disciple. 

The  retirement  of  Arnauld's  friends  from  the  Sor- 
bonne  was  the  ostensible  reason  for  the  second  letter. 
The  next  point  of  dispute,  writes  Pascal,  is  the  question 
of  sufficing  grace,  which,  the  Jesuits  hold,  is  given  to 
all,  and  a  grace  is  rendered  efficacious  or  the  contrary 
according  to  whether  the  will  of  man  receives  it  or 
not.  The  Jansenists  do  not  agree.  The  new  sort  of 
Thomists  are  thus  on  the  side  of  the  Jesuits,  that 
is,  they  say  "une  grace  suffisante"  is  given  to  all; 
but  that  is  not  enough,  and  so  efficacious  grace  is  given, 
but  not  to  all.  So  sufficing  grace  does  not  always 
suffice. 

The  writer  went  on  to  draw  for  the  three  opposing 
theologians — a  Thomist,  a  Jansenist,  a  Jesuit,  whom  he 


THE  SUCCESS  OF  THE  LETTEKS      243 

had  managed  to  bring  together — a  picture  of  the  Church 
in  a  parable. 

And  just  as  Pascal,  or  Louis  de  Montalte,  con- 
cludes his  letter,  he  hears  that  the  Censure  has  been 
pronounced  by  one  hundred  and  thirty  votes  against 
nine. 

Arnauld  went  into  hiding  to  escape  the  Bastille,  and 
Pascal,  whose  letters  were  carefully  read  and  enjoyed 
by  the  Parisians,  continued.  He  invented  a  reply  from 
the  Provincial  which  is  a  little  bit  of  playfulness.  The 
letters,  says  the  supposed  correspondent,  are  read  and 
delighted  in,  not  only  by  theologians  but  by  men  of 
the  world,  and  they  are  intelligible  even  to  women! 
And  there  are  quotations  from  letters,  supposed  to  be 
written  by  correspondents  of  the  Provincial,  expressing 
the  pleasure  which  the  writers  felt.1 

Even  now  Pascal's  own  amusement  and  enjoyment 
of  this  novel  situation  speak  out  from  the  letters ;  he 
had  boundless  stores  of  intellectual  humour,  and  for 
once  in  his  rather  sad  life  he  permitted  himself  that 
agreeable  diversion. 

M.  Sainte  Beuve  recalls  to  us  one  of  the  Pensdes : 
"  L'homme  est  ainsi  fait,  qu'a  force  de  lui  dire  qu'il  est 
un  sot,  il  le  croit."  And  so,  says  the  great  writer  : 
"  II  y  a  une  certaine  maniere  de  lui  dire  ce  qu'on  est  soi 
meme,  et  ce  qu'on  vaut,  qui  lui  en  dessine  et  lui  en 
acheve  1'idee."  Pascal  has  that  art  to  perfection,  says 
Sainte  Beuve,  and  Montaigne  and  his  art  have  had 
something  to  say  to  Pascal. 

In  the  third  letter  Pascal  considers  the  question  of 
Arnauld's  statement  that  grace  was  wanting  to  St  Peter 
in  his  fall.  This  proposition,  according  to  Arnauld's 
opponents,  was  audacious,  impious,  blasphemous, 
anathematised,  and  heretical.  As  the  supposed  M.  de 
Montalte  says,  no  stronger  expressions  could  be  used 
against  Arius  or  even  Antichrist,  than  those  which 
have  been  used  against  a  not  very  perceptible  error. 
For  after  all  Arnauld  agrees  with  the  Fathers,  and  his 
quotations  prove  his  agreement.  So  he  concludes.  It 

1  Port  Royal)  vol  ii.,  p.  66,  of  4th  edition. 


244  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PEESECUTION 

is  not  M.  Arnauld's  opinions  which  are  heretical ;  it  is 
M.  Arnauld  himself. 

And  now  Pascal  takes  a  new  point  of  departure ; 
hitherto  he  has  simply  discussed  the  question  of  the 
hour,  and  produced  some  exceedingly  brilliant  but 
possibly  ephemeral  literature.  Ephemeral,  that  is  to 
say,  if  he  had  stopped  there.  But  he  now  ceases  to  be 
simply  Arnauld's  defender ;  he  carries  the  war  into  the 
enemy's  country,  and  however  much  may  be  said  of  his 
inaccuracies  in  details,  of  the  unfairness  in  quotations, 
of  one-sidedness,  no  really  weighty  refutation  has  ever 
been  made  of  the  tenor  of  his  accusation. 

Pascal  represents  himself  (the  supposed  Louis  de 
Montalte)  as  consulting  a  former  acquaintance,  now  a 
Jesuit,  for  the  express  purpose  of  investigating  the 
teaching  of  that  society.  It  is  a  terrible  revelation. 
Step  by  step  the  amiable  Father  falls  into  the  trap  which 
Montalte  lays,  and  betrays  how  cleverly  the  Jesuits 
have  provided  for  every  conscience,  how  completely  the 
idea  of  the  venom  and  corruption  of  sin  is  obscured  by 
this  system.  It  is  in  this  letter  that  we  are  introduced 
to  Escobar,  who  wrote  the  book  on  Casuistry  which 
Pascal  has  for  ever  made  infamous. 

In  this  letter  Pascal  with  real  dramatic  power  makes 
his  Jesuit  Father  unfold  the  doctrine  of  "  Probabilism," 
and  frankly  admits  that  the  Fathers  are  neglected  by  his 
society  who  only  read  their  own  writers. 

The  Bishop  of  Exeter  in  his  Bampton  Lectures, 
Regnum  Dei,  has  briefly  defined  Probabilism  as  "the 
doctrine  that  in  order  to  be  justified  in  acting  on  the 
less  safe  side  in  a  moral  alternative,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  be  supported  by  a  preponderance  of  reasons,  but 
sufficient  to  have  some  reason  for  doubting  the  obliga- 
tion to  act  on  the  safer  side." 

But  what  is  the  impression  left  on  our  minds  by 
Pascal  and  by  his  opponents  alike?  This,  that  the 
system  of  Probabilism  is  simply  to  bring  about  a  purely 
legal  conception  of  moral  obligation.  "To  reduce  life, 
duty,  the  love  of  God,  to  the  ideas  of  debtor  and 
creditor,  and  what  is  even  more  serious,  to  lower  the 


PEOBABILISM  245 

moral  standard  of  defining  sin  as  disobedience  to  law — 
for  the  reason  that  God  requires  obedience  to  spiritual 
superiors." 

"  Lex  dubia  non  obligat,"  that  fatal  axiom,  "  made 
the  evasion  of  almost  every  moral  and  ecclesiastical 
precept  possible."1 

In  odd  contrast  with  this,  read  the  words  of  a  modern 
Father  :  "  As  the  vine  lives  only  to  produce  grapes,  so 
the  Church  exists  and  labours  only  to  produce  good 
men  ;  that  is,  to  reproduce  the  Life  of  Christ  as  fully  as 
possible  in  each  particular  soul,  to  bring-  minds  into 
conformity  with  the  mind  of  Christ,  and  hearts  into 
conformity  with  the  heart  of  Christ." 2 

But  Probabilism  is  not  at  all  concerned  with  sanctifi- 
cation,  and  its  effects  were  recognised.  Vainly  did 
Innocent  XL  endeavour  to  extirpate  the  doctrine.  To 
all  appearances,  and  in  spite  of  all  the  noble  utterances 
of  many  members  of  the  Society,  Probabilism  rears  its 
ugly  head,  and  one  can  only  hope  that  to  the  Western 
Church  will  be  granted  some  Pope  with  prophetical  gifts, 
who  can  fight  with  success  on  the  side  of  God. 

One  can  recognise  the  principle  underlying  the  fatal 
mistake  :  "Retain  as  many  as  possible,  drive  no  one  out." 

And  so  the  precepts  of  Christ  were  watered  down  to 
suit  those  who  shirked  the  offence  of  the  Cross.  Those 
who  are  willing  to  follow  Christ  are  encouraged,  but  for 
unstable  souls,  for  sinners,  for  the  worldly,  for  the  pro- 
fligate, an  easy  way  must  be  found. 

Is  this  the  way  of  Christ  ?  Sinners  He  ever  welcomes. 
He  is  "  Agnus  Dei  qui  tollit  peccata  mundi." 

But,  as  has  been  said  over  and  over  again,  He  saves 
us  from  sin,  not  in  sin.  It  is  a  terrible  charge,  but  can 
it  be  denied  that  Probabilism  has  encouraged  a  moral 
scepticism  than  which  no  greater  disaster  can  overtake 
mankind  ? 

Pascal  continues  for  six  more  letters  the  account  of 
his  conversations  with  the  Father  ;  he  concludes  the 
tenth  with  these  words  —  he  has  been  denouncing  the 


1  Regnum  Deiy  p.  341.  2  External  Religion,  p.  74. 


246  THE  BEGINNING  OF  PEESECUTION 

extraordinary  opinion  that  men  might  be  excused  from 
loving-  God : — 

"Strange  theology  of  nowadays!  They  dare  to 
remove  the  anathema  St  Paul  pronounces  against  those 
who  do  not  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  .  .  .  Thus, 
those  who  throughout  their  life  have  never  loved  God 
are  declared  worthy  to  enjoy  Him  throughout  eternity. 
Here  is  the  mystery  of  iniquity  accomplished!  Open 
your  eyes,  my  Father,  and  if  you  have  not  been  touched 
by  the  other  aberrations  of  your  casuists,  let  these  last 
examples  hold  you  back  by  their  extravagance. 

"  I  desire  for  you  and  for  all  your  Fathers  with  all 
my  heart,  and  pray  God  that  He  may  vouchsafe  to 
them  the  knowledge  of  the  false  lights  which  have  led 
them  to  such  precipices,  and  that  He  will  fill  with  His 
Love  those  who  say  men  may  dispense  with  love." 

But  now  Pascal  changes  his  tactics.  He  has  been 
ironical ;  he  has,  as  it  were,  enjoyed  the  process  of  draw- 
ing out  the  Jesuit. 

From  the  eleventh  to  the  eighteenth  letter  he  now 
writes  to  the  Society  itself.  His  supposed  friend  in  the 
country  has  disappeared.  It  is  in  the  tones  of  stern 
denunciation  that  he  now  speaks.  He  begins  by  amply 
justifying  himself  for  the  irony,  for  the  scorn  which  he 
has  poured  upon  the  teaching  of  the  Jesuits ;  he  con- 
tinues in  the  same  lofty  and  terrible  manner  ;  it  would 
seem  that  after  the  peroration  of  the  tenth  letter  quoted 
above,  he  has  really  begun  the  terrible  duel  a  entrance, 
and  all  that  had  come  before  had  been  but  preliminary 
fencing.  He  pours  withering  scorn  on  the  calumnies 
and  scandals  of  which  the  Society  has  been  the 
author. 

"  How  I  pity  you,  my  Fathers,  for  having  had 
recourse  to  such  weapons.  The  insults  you  heap  upon 
me  will  not  shed  any  light  on  our  differences,  and  the 
threats  you  utter  in  so  many  different  ways  will  not 
hinder  me  from  defending  myself.  You  believe  you 
have  strength  and  security.  I  believe  I  have  truth  and 
innocence.  It  is  a  strange  and  long  warfare  in  which 
violence  tries  to  oppress  truth.  All  the  efforts  of 
violence  cannot  weaken  truth,  they  only  establish  it 


LETTEES  TO  THE  SOCIETY  OF  JESUS  247 

more ;  all  the  illuminations  of  truth  can  do  nothing-  to 
check  violence,  and  only  serve  to  enrage  it  to  a  still 
greater  extent.  When  force  meets  force,  the  stronger 
destroys  the  weaker.  When  arguments  are  opposed  to 
arguments,  the  true  and  convincing  arguments  scatter 
and  put  away  arguments  which  are  only  vanity  and 
falsehood.  But  violence  and  truth  have  nothing  to  do 
with  each  other.  But  let  no  one  assert  that  neverthe- 
less these  things  are  equal ;  for  there  is  this  extreme 
difference  between  them,  that  violence  has  only  a 
limited  career,  limited  by  the  command  of  God,  who 
directs  its  efforts  to  glorify  that  truth  which  it  attacks  : 
whereas  truth  endures  eternally  and  finally  triumphs 
over  its  enemies,  because  just  as  God  himself  is  eternal 
and  powerful,  so  is  truth." 

This  is  indeed  to  pass  from  the  defender  to  the 
accuser.  Even  after  the  lapse  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  one  seems  to  feel  the  living-,  quivering-,  lofty 
indignation  of  the  righteous  soul  vexed  by  iniquity. 

It  is  incredible  that  the  maxims  concerning-  homicide 
and  various  sins  which  Pascal  so  fully  denounces  can 
ever  have  been  defended  by  a  society  even  nominally 
moral,  much  less  Christian. 

There  is  a  fine  passage  in  the  thirteenth  letter :  "  At 
the  last  day  all  your  authors  will  arise  one  against 
another  and  mutually  condemn  one  another  for  their 
frightful  extravagances  against  the  Law  of  Jesus 
Christ." 

Pascal  in  the  fourteenth  letter  seems  to  feel  the  same 
difficulty  which  his  readers  feel  in  understanding-  the 
point  of  view  of  the  Jesuits ;  the  whole  position  is  so 
ridiculous : — 

"  Do  see  now,  my  Fathers,  in  which  of  these  two 
Kingdoms  you  are.  You  have  heard  the  language  of 
the  City  of  Peace  and  the  mystical  Jerusalem,  and  you 
have  heard  the  language  of  the  City  of  Trouble,  which 
Scripture  calls  the  spiritual  Sodom  :  which  of  these  two 
languages  do  you  understand  ?  which  do  you  speak  ?  " 

The  fifteenth  continues  the  same  attack  in  even 
more  forcible,  more  scathing  words  ;  and  the  Jesuits 


248   THE  BEGINNING  OF  PEESECUTION 

felt  them  and  writhed.  One  of  the  most  tremendous 
passages  is  the  one  in  which  he  accuses  them  of  the  lies 
and  forgeries  which  they  published  and  actively  spread 
to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Jansenists. 

In  the  sixteenth  letter  Pascal  sets  himself  to  refute 
the  charges  of  heresy  brought  against  the  Port 
Royalists.  "  The  Jesuits  have  had  the  insolence,"  he  says, 
"  to  accuse  the  whole  of  that  Society  of  heresy  concerning 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar."  It  was  not  very  difficult  to 
refute  this,  and  Pascal  does  so  at  great  length.  One 
eloquent  burst  of  denunciation,  which  we  quote,  will 
never  be  forgotten  : — 

"Cruel,  cowardly  persecutors,  must  the  most 
retired  Cloisters  be  no  refuge  against  your  slanders? 
While  these  holy  virgins  day  and  night  adore  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  Blessed  Sacrament  according  to  their  rule, 
you  cease  not  day  nor  night  to  assert  that  they  do  not 
believe  either  that  He  is  in  the  Eucharist,  or  that  He  is 
even  at  the  Right  Hand  of  His  Father.  You  would 
cut  them  off  publicly  from  the  Church  while  they  pray  in 
secret  for  you  and  the  whole  Church.  You  slander 
those  who  have  no  ears  to  hear  you,  no  mouth  to 
answer  you.  But — Jesus  Christ,  in  whom  they  are 
hidden,  to  appear  only  with  Him  one  day — He  can  be 
heard  to-day,  and  His  awful  and  holy  voice  which 
terrifies  Nature,  which  consoles  the  Church.  And  those 
who  harden  their  hearts  and  obstinately  refuse  to  hear 
Him  when  He  speaks  to  them  as  their  God,  will  be  com- 
pelled to  hear  him  with  terror  when  He  speaks  to  them 
as  their  Judge." 

Sainte  Beuve  asks  us  to  realise  what  it  meant  to  be 
accused  of  not  believing  in  the  Incarnation  and  in  the 
Eucharist ;  it  is  not  difficult  for  some  of  us  in  the 
English  Church  to  realise  the  position,  and  we  can  enter 
into  Pascal's  feelings  and  make  them  our  own. 

The  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  letters  are  answers 
to  the  Jesuit,  Pere  Annat,  and  deal  with  that  perplexing 
and  perhaps  to  us  wearisome  question  of  Droit  and 
Fait. 

Were  the  condemned  propositions  contained  in  the 
Augustinus?  This  was  a  question  on  which  Popes 


PASCAL'S  VIEW  249 

might  be  mistaken — a  question  of  fact,  and  sufficient 
examples  are  given. 

Pascal  maintained  that  they  were  not  literally  con- 
tained in  Jansenius ;  perhaps  they  were  not,  but  some- 
thing extremely  like  them  was  contained  therein. 

In  fact,  there  always  have  been  and  always  will  be 
the  two  tendencies  in  the  human  mind.  Truth  lies  in 
a  mean — for  us  relatively ;  for  no  human  intelligence 
can  grasp  the  mysteries  of  the  infinite,  and  Dante's 
words  might  profitably  have  been  quoted  : 

"  State  content!,  umana  gente,  al  quia 
Che  si  potuto  aveste  veder  tutto 
Mestier  non  era  partorir  Maria." 1 

Pascal's  keen  and  scientific  intelligence  lifted  him 
above  the  confusion  of  thought  which  prevented  less 
gifted  men  from  seeing  that  in  God  all  seeming  contra- 
dictions meet.  Man's  free  will  and  God's  grace.  As 
Sainte  Beuve  remarks,  Pascal  is  far  removed  from 
Arnauld's  dialectics  and  controversial  temper. 

Pascal  never  felt  any  kind  of  repentance  for  the  Pro- 
vincial Letters.  Why,  indeed,  should  he?  There  is  a 
righteous  indignation  and  there  is  a  holy  anger.  Rightly 
did  he  make  that  great  appeal  in  the  Pensees :  "Ad 
Tuum,  Domine  Jesu,  tribunal  appello."2 

We  must  now  leave  Pascal  for  a  short  time  and 
trace  the  fortunes  of  Port  Royal ;  around  that  devoted 
Community  the  clouds  are  gathering.  But  Angelique's 
motto  is  "  Dominus  in  Caelo." 

1  Purgatoria,  canto  iii.  37.        2  See  Appendix,  Notes  V.  and  Va. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   LAST  DAYS  OF  M&RE  ANG&LIQUE  (1656-1661) 

THE  year  1656  opened  gloomily  enough  for  Port  Royal. 
There  were  rumours  that  the  "  Solitaires"  were  to  be 
driven  from  their  retreat,  and  the  nuns  were  to  be 
deprived  alike  of  confessors  and  pupils. 

M.  d'Andilly,  who  had  been  always  respected  and 
liked  by  Cardinal  Mazarin,  wrote  a  letter  to  him  on  the 
1 3th  of  February,  but  Port  Royal  was  not  in  favour  in 
high  places.  Mazarin  was  not  a  little  suspicious  of 
what  he  thought  was,  so  to  speak,  an  ecclesiastical 
Fronde ;  he  had  experienced  sufficient  discomfort  from 
the  secular  Fronde,  and  was  by  no  means  averse  to  the 
policy  of  persecution.  And  Anne  of  Austria  disliked 
the  Port  Royalists  heartily.  Mme.  de  Motteville,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  an  untheological  mind,  sums  up  the 
controversy  admirably  in  the  first  volume  of  her 
Memoirs : — 

"Every  time  that  men  speak  of  God's  Hidden 
Mysteries,  I  am  astonished  by  their  boldness,  and  I  am 
delighted  that  I  am  not  compelled  to  know  anything 
more  than  my  Pater,  my  Credo,  and  the  Commandments 
of  God.  About  the  point  of  which  I  speak,  I  know  that 
it  is  enough  for  me  to  believe  that  we  have  nothing  which 
we  have  not  received,  that  I  can  do  no  good  thing  without 
God's  grace,  and  that  He  has  given  me  my  free  will." 

Port  Royal  and  its  doings  were  much  discussed  at 
Court.  On  the  2ist  of  February  it  became  known  that 
the  " Solitaires"  would  be  dispersed  and  the  children 

260 


SUSPENSE  251 

withdrawn,  and  on  the  29th  of  February,  Angelique 
writes  to  Antoine  Arnauld  : — 

"Well,  my  dearest  Father,  if  God  does  not  miracu- 
lously arrest  the  course  of  the  persecution,  it  will  become 
severe  in  the  eyes  of  men ;  but  I  hope  that  God  will 
temper  it  by  His  goodness,  and  will  suffer  it  to  be  in 
proportion  to  our  weakness.  Whatever  it  may  be,  all 
that  which  is  temporal  is  of  very  little  consequence.  I 
entreat  you  to  pray  God  always  that  He  will  grant  to 
us  a  true  faith  and  a  true  charity ;  and  if  we  have  those 
we  shall  be  strong*.  I  confess  to  you  it  is  rather  difficult 
for  me  to  g-o  away  from  here  where  there  is  much  to  do, 
but  I  am  inclined  to  think  I  am  not  of  much  use.  But 
it  is  not  that  which  I  think  of,  but  I  fear  that  M.  Singlin 
may  be  taken  from  us  ;  and  in  that  case  I  should  wish 
to  be  at  Paris  to  see  him  and  help  our  Mother  and  Mere 
Agnes,  and  be  helped  by  them.  Our  Sisters  here  fill 
me  with  pity. 

"  However,  I  long-  to  obey  willingly.  We  must, 
dearest  Father,  give  ourselves  up  to  everything,  and 
bear  these  agonies  and  heartaches  which  our  ^  Lord 
foretold  to  His  disciples  would  be  their  portion  in  this 
world.  We  have  not  had  any  such  up  to  now ;  on  the 
contrary,  our  troubles  have  been  sent  side  by  side  with 
so  much  comfort,  so  much  help  and  even  praise,  from 
friends,  that  they  were  not  real  troubles.  I  think  it  will 
not  be  so  henceforth,  and  that  there  will  be  more  bitter- 
ness, more  sense  of  being  forsaken,  and  of  humiliation 
than  in  the  past.  All  those  are  benefits  by  God's  grace 
.  .  .  after  all,  dear  Father,  we  must  die,  and  everything 
else  is  of  little  account  in  comparison  with  this  last  trial, 
which  is,  however,  the  gate  to  eternal  blessedness." 

Day  by  day  the  devoted  community  waited,  and  on 
the  2Oth  of  March  the  "  Solitaires  "  and  the  boys  retired. 
Nothing  seemed  safe ;  but  Mere  Angelique  never  lost 
courage.  "If  God  gives  us  here  faith  and  love,  we 
shall  be  too  strong."  It  was  a  sad  time.  M.  d'Andilly 
was  the  last  to  leave,  and  Angelique  writes  to  the  Queen 
of  Poland : — 

4 'So  here  are  all  our  'Solitaires'  gone:  only  my 
brother  D'Andilly  is  left,  and  he  must  go  too,  as  he 
could  not  obtain  permission  from  the  Queen  to  stay, 


252  LAST  DAYS  OF  M&RE  ANGfiLIQUE 

although  she  does  him  the  honour  of  being  very  fond 
of  him.  All  that  could  be  obtained  was  that  no 
Commissioner  should  be  sent,  on  the  assurance  that 
obedience  would  be  rendered,  as  it  was.  Our  valley 
was  very  truly  a  valley  of  tears  ;  all  the  "  Messieurs" 
and  the  children,  who  were  fifteen  in  number,  were  so 
afflicted  at  leaving  this  place  that  it  broke  one's  heart 
to  see  them.  But  one  must  obey  God  in  all :  so  they 
too  are  submissive  to  His  holy  will.  We  expect  the 
fulfilment  of  the  threats  against  the  confessors,  and 
against  the  interior  of  the  House,  which  is  my  principal 


care." 


She  wrote  to  her  nephew,  M.  Le  Maitre,  a  few  days 
later : — 

"  I  hope  He  will  keep  those  who  are  gone.  They 
have  edified  me  very  much  ;  their  sorrow  has  been  such 
a  Christian  sorrow,  unmurmuring,  no  discouragement, 
no  vexation.  And  finally,  one  could  see  by  their  exit, 
that  they  had  only  sought  God  in  their  entrance.  .  .  . 
Our  Sisters  are  what  they  ought  to  be,  thanks  be  to 
God,  afflicted,  but  perfectly  quiet.  .  .  .  The  little  girls 
who  had  brothers  at  *  Les  Granges,1  have  wept  as 
much  for  their  brothers  as  for  themselves ;  they  fear 
their  turn  will  come.  .  .  .  Without  faith  all  is  unbear- 
able, with  faith  all  is  sweet." 

A  few  of  the  Solitaires  remained,  and  were  taken  for 
peasants  by  the  magistrate  who  visited  Port  Royal. 
M.  Charles,  a  priest  who  had  ceased  to  act  as  a  priest, 
had  been  the  gardener  of  Port  Royal,  and  bore  himself 
as  such,  as  did  also  another  who  was  the  vinedresser 
of  Port  Royal.  He  too  had  been  a  priest. 

From  Les  Granges  (the  home  of  the  Solitaires)  the 
magistrate  went  to  the  Monastery  itself,  where  Mere 
Angdique  hardly  expected  him,  as  she  had  been  told 
that  his  visit  had  nothing  to  do  with  her.  She  knelt  for 
a  moment  in  silent  prayer,  and  then,  accompanied  by 
Marie  Doroth^e  de  1' Incarnation,  who  was  the  Prioress, 
and  by  Angelique  de  St  Jean,  her  niece  (one  day  also 
to  be  a  famous  Mere  Angelique),  went  calmly  into  the 
parlour  and  confronted  the  officer.  He  was  polite,  and 


A  FORMAL  INTERROGATION         253 

begged  her  to  tell  him  how  it  was  that  "ces  Messieurs," 
the  Solitaires,  had  ventured  to  reside  at  Les  Granges. 
Angelique  replied  that  they  had  come  there  simply  for 
the  sake  of  religious  retreat,  and  told  him  the  story  of 
M.  Le  Maitre  and  of  some  of  the  others. 

After  she  had  finished,  the  magistrate  made  her 
undergo  a  formal  interrogation  (the  first  of  many 
which  the  unfortunate  Port  Royalists  were  to  endure). 
Angelique's  story  was  the  same  in  all  points,  and  the 
magistrate  could  not  shake  her  evidence.  He  tried  in 
vain  to  make  her  admit  that  the  suspected  "  Solitaires" 
were  a  Community,  or  that  they  said  their  Offices 
together,  or  said  Mass  in  private.  None  of  these 
terrible  crimes  had  been  committed.  An  invalid  indeed 
had  been  permitted  to  say  Mass  in  his  own  little  house, 
which  did  not  adjoin  the  others. 

Then  came  another  question.  Was  it  true  that 
these  most  suspicious  Solitaires  had  their  meals  in 
common  ?  "Yes,  they  did,"  replied  Angelique,  but  so 
did  other  priests  when  they  were  living  together. 

"The  truth  was,"  the  magistrate  avowed  in  a  burst 
of  frankness,  "  the  Arnaulds  and  their  friends  were  too 
clever  ;  if  they  had  been  stupid,  people  would  not  have 
talked  so  much." 

When  the  examination  was  over  Mere  Angelique 
signed  it,  and  made  some  allusions  to  the  examination 
which  M.  Le  Maitre  had  undergone  at  the  hands  of 
M.  Laubardement,  to  which  her  interrogator  replied 
that  he  hoped  she  did  not  consider  him  as  at  all 
resembling  Laubardement. 

After  this  there  was  a  lull.  The  little  Community 
led  its  usual  life  of  prayer  and  of  work,  in  spite  of  the 
growing  anxiety  lest  these  children,  the  girls  whom 
they  were  educating,  should  be  taken  from  them.  After 
this,  M.  Daubrai,  the  magistrate,  went  on  to  M.  de 
Bernieres  at  Chesnai.  Here  he  found  one  of  the  Port 
Royal  schools  in  full  progress,  young  Racine  among 
the  pupils ;  M.  Wallon  de  Beaupuis  was  at  their  head. 
There  was  nothing  to  say  about  this,  except  to  praise  it. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  supreme  moment  in  the 


254  LAST  DAYS  OF  MEKE  ANGELIQUE 

history  of  Port  Royal,  the  Miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn. 
Jacqueline  Pascal,  now  Sceur  Euphemie,  wrote  the 
account  of  it  to  her  sister.  It  appears  that  on  the  15th 
of  March  1656,  a  priest,  one  M.  de  la  Potherie,  sent 
to  Port  Royal  a  reliquary  in  which  was  said  to  be 
contained  the  Holy  Thorn,  one  of  the  thorns  of  our 
Blessed  Lord's  Crown.  The  Community  received  it 
with  profound  humility  and  joy. 

One  of  the  children  who  was  being  brought  up  at 
Port  Royal  was  Marguerite  Perier,  the  daughter  of 
Gilberte,  Blaise  Pascal's  elder  sister.  Poor  little 
Margot,  as  she  was  generally  called,  a  child  of  eleven, 
had  been  suffering  for  some  time  from  a  distressing 
lachrymal  fistula  in  her  eye,  which  was  causing  her 
terrible  pain  and  was  also  a  most  afflicting  sight  to  her 
neighbours.  The  description  of  it  is  sickening.  The 
poor  child's  eye  and  cheek  became  at  times  excessively 
swollen,  and  on  the  swelling  being  pressed,  matter 
came  out  from  the  eye  and  the  nose,  and  the  swelling 
disappeared  for  a  time,  but  soon  returned. 

The  surgeon  who  was  attending  her  thought  that 
cauterising  the  fistula  was  the  only  hope,  and  M. 
Perier  was  summoned  from  Auvergne. 

At  the  time  of  this  decision  about  Margot,  the 
reliquary  had  been  brought  to  Port  Royal,  and  a  Mass 
was  sung  in  thanksgiving.  The  Antiphon  was  "  Shew 
some  token  upon  me  for  good."  After  the  Mass  all 
the  Sisters  and  the  children  went  in  procession  to  the 
shrine  of  the  Holy  Thorn,  and  Sceur  Flavie,  glancing 
at  Margot,  was  suddenly  inspired  to  apply  it  to  the 
child's  eye.  The  service  was  concluded,  and  no  one 
noticed  Margot  in  any  way. 

But  at  night  Sceur  Flavie  heard  Margot  say  to  one 
of  the  other  children,  "  My  eye  is  cured ;  it  doesn't 
hurt  me."  The  Sister  went  up  to  her,  and  to  her 
profound  astonishment  found  the  swelling  had  dis- 
appeared ;  the  child's  afflicted  eye  was  now  exactly 
like  the  other. 

The  nuns  of  Port  Royal  were  always  very  quiet — 
Mere  Agnes,  to  whom  Sceur  Flavie  went  at  once,  told 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  THE  HOLY  THORN  255 

Margot's  aunt,  and  for  a  whole  week  the  child  was 
watched  and  many  prayers  were  said. 

On  the  next  day,  says  Fontaine,  a  week  afterwards, 
writes  Soeur  Euphemie,  came  the  surgeon.  Fontaine 
says  that  M.  Perier  was  present,  and  gives  a  dramatic 
account  of  the  preparations  for  the  horrible  operation — 
of  the  surgeon's  exclamations  to  the  poor  sufferer  to  be 
patient,  and  of  the  good  man's  surprise  when  the  little 
girl  sat  up  and  showed  her  eye.  Of  this,  however, 
Mere  Angelique  and  Jacqueline  Pascal  say  nothing. 
Mere  Angelique's  account  of  the  miracle,  written  to 
the  Queen  of  Poland,  is  very  striking,  but  is  too  long 
to  quote  entirely  : — 

"  As  the  Miracle  cannot  be  denied,  ^some  say  that  of 
course  the  relic  would  work  a  miracle  anywhere. 
Others  say,  God  has  worked  it  for  our  conversion.  I 
quite  agree  with  this  last  opinion,  and  I  wish  for  our 
conversion,  not  from  heresy,  in  which,  thanks  be  to 
God,  we  are  not,  but  from  many  imperfections,  of  which 
He  will  mercifully  cure  us.  We  do  not  really  know  if 
God  willed  to  use  this  miracle,  but  it  seems  that  some 
degree  of  relaxation  has  resulted.  My  brother 
D'Andilly  has  been  allowed  to  return,  and  there  is  no 
more  talk  of  removing  our  confessors.  At  any  rate  it  is 
a  truce  permitted  by  God,  to  fit  us  to  suffer  better  when 
it  shall  please  Him  to  allow  the  storm  to  begin  again. 
In  the  meantime,  we  shall  go  on  in  prayer  to  God." 

It  is  interesting,  as  Sainte  Beuve  points  out,  to  see 
how  completely  Mere  Angelique  ignores  the  fact  that 
Margot  was  a  niece  of  the  great  Blaise  Pascal. 

No  writer  on  Port  Royal  who  is  at  all  worthy  of 
attention  has  suggested  any  attempt  at  imposture,  but 
Sainte  Beuve  considers  it  to  have  been  a  purely  natural 
event,  and  Mr  Beard  in  his  book  on  Port  Royal  gives 
an  elaborate  medical  explanation.  He  supposes  that  the 
pressure  of  the  thorn  on  Margot  Perier's  nose  burst  the 
abscess  from  which  the  child  was  suffering.  It  is 
possible  that  something  of  the  sort  occurred,  but  we 
have  no  difficulty  in  agreeing  with  Pascal  and  all  the 
Port  Royalists  that  God  was  showing  tokens  upon 


256  LAST  DAYS   OF  M&KE  ANGELIQUE 

them  for  good.  It  does  seem  strange  that  unless  the 
illness  was  much  exaggerated  it  should  have  left  so 
little  trace. 

Now  one  thing  is  certain.  The  Port  Royalists  were 
never  given  to  exaggerate  or  make  much  of  illness,  and 
the  description  of  Marguerite  Perier's  miseries  leads 
one  to  suppose  that,  as  the  doctor  said,  there  was 
serious,  probably  irreparable,  mischief. 

As  may  be  supposed,  once  the  miracle  was  known, 
all  Paris  became  extraordinarily  excited  ;  people  flocked 
to  see  the  favoured  spot  and  the  little  girl.  Mere 
Angelique  writes  to  the  then  Abbess,  her  very  dear 
Marie  des  Anges  : — 

"  It  is  true,  dear  Mother,  that  we  cannot  be  suffici- 
ently thankful  to  God  for  His  goodness  to  us,  and  I  am 
in  great  fear  lest  we  may  not  evince  it  to  His  Divine 
Majesty  by  faithfulness  to  our  duties  and  by  self- 
mortification." 

Certainly  there  must  have  been  an  extraordinary 
revulsion  of  feeling  in  the  Community.  It  is  difficult 
perhaps  to  realise  the  trembling  joy,  the  thankfulness, 
with  which  they  received  this  signal  mercy.  Marguerite 
was  cured ;  of  this  there  was  no  doubt,  and  the  fact 
was  duly  attested  by  four  doctors. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  be  edified  by  the  reticence 
and  calmness  of  the  Community.  One  wonders  what 
Marguerite  herself  felt.  She  survived  all  her  family,  and 
died  a  holy  death  in  1733.  She  ever  regarded  herself 
as  having  been  the  subject  of  a  miracle. 

The  miracle  was  duly  acknowledged  by  the  proper 
authorities,  and  a  Mass  of  thanksgiving  was  sung. 

Anne  of  Austria,  always  devout,  was  not  a  little 
perplexed  and  put  out.  It  was  a  most  inconvenient 
intervention  of  Divine  Providence  on  behalf  of  a  Com- 
munity on  which  Royalty  looked  with  unfavourable 
eyes.  The  Queen  sent  her  own  surgeon,  M.  Felix,  who 
confirmed  all  that  the  doctors  had  said. 

What  was  to  be  done  ? 

M.  dAndilly,  always  a  favourite  at  Court,  was  told 


THE  CARDINAL  DE  RETZ  257 

that  he  might  return  to  Port  Royal ;  the  other  Solitaires 
quickly  came  back,  attracting-  as  little  attention  as 
possible. 

M.  Le  Maitre,  accompanied  by  M.  du  Fosse,  took 
up  his  abode  in  a  little  dwelling  apart  from  the  rest,  and 
as  he  was  in  very  bad  health,  he  so  far  relaxed  his  rule 
that  he  rose  as  late  as  4  A.M.  He  and  Du  Fosse  worked 
at  translations,  and  Du  Fosse,  who  was  then  a  young 
man  of  two-  or  three-and-twenty,  gives  a  charming 
picture  of  the  relations  which  existed  between  them,  and 
of  the  pains  M.  Le  Maitre  had  always  taken  with  him 
from  the  day  when  he  first  came  as  a  boy  to  Port  Royal 
up  to  this  time  : — "  He  looked  on  me  really  as  a  friend, 
who  was  to  be  his  companion  in  solitude."  He  goes  on 
to  say:  "We  took  up  our  abode  in  a  part  quite 
separated  from  the  other  buildings  ;  it  might  have  been 
a  fresh  place  of  solitude  in  the  midst  of  the  desert. 
This  part  was  called  St  Anthony,  for  St  Anthony  was 
M.  Le  Maitre's  patron  ;  and  our  little  home  was  at  the 
bottom  of  a  large  and  pleasant  garden." 

But  an  unmistakable  sign  that  the  clouds,  at  any 
rate  for  a  time,  were  dispersed,  was  that  Cardinal  de 
Retz  appointed  M.  Singlin  as  Superior  of  the  two  houses 
of  Port  Royal. 

De  Retz,  with  all  his  faults,  was  always  a  good 
friend  to  Port  Royal,  but,  as  Racine  points  out,  the 
Port  Royalists  never  gave  him  any  aid  in  his  political 
adventures.  De  Retz  himself  observed  that  he  never 
came  across  any  set  of  people  less  adapted  for  political 
cabals  than  were  the  Port  Royalists. 

De  Retz  was  in  Rouen  at  the  time  of  the  miracle  of 
the  Holy  Thorn,  and  Sainte  Beuve  gives  a  curious 
account  of  his  supposed  relations  with  the  Port 
Royalists.  He  points  out  that  De  Retz  was  in  disgrace, 
and  a  persecuted  individual  was  naturally  dearer  to  the 
Messieurs  of  Port  Royal  than  a  person  in  unbroken 
prosperity ;  there  certainly  was  some  correspondence 
between  Port  Royal  and  the  clever  but  not  particularly 
trustworthy  Cardinal.  Everything  went  forward 
quietly,  and  that  Port  Royal  was  in  a  little  better  odour 

R 


258  LAST  DAYS  OF  MEEE  ANGELIQUE 

at  Court  seemed  probable,  as  no  less  a  person  than 
the  Grande  Mademoiselle  one  day  paid  a  visit  to 
M.  d'Andilly. 

Several  members  of  the  devoted  Community  died 
about  this  time,  taken  away  from  the  evil  to  come  ;  and 
the  Abbess  Marie  des  Anges  and  Mere  Agnes  were 
both  very  ill. 

M.  de  Bagnols,  the  kind  protector  of  Port  Royal, 
who  had  been,  it  will  be  remembered,  their  host  at  the 
time  of  the  Fronde,  and  who  had  been  always  one  of 
the  defenders  of  Port  Royal,  died  in  1657.  He  was  one 
of  those  lay  examples  of  piety  which  give  a  peculiar 
interest  to  Port  Royal,  and  like  so  many  more  of  the 
worthiest  of  Frenchmen,  he  was  of  the  "Gens  de  la 
Robe."  He  held  the  post  of  "Maitre  des  Requetes,"1 
and  was  rich  and  prosperous,  and  happily  married.  M. 
Singlin's  sermons  were  the  means  of  his  final  conversion, 
and  one  of  the  chroniclers  of  Port  Royal  says  that  "his 
was  no  half  conversion."  He  sold,  after  the  fashion  of 
his  time,  his  post,  surrendered  a  large  sum  of  money  to 
which  in  fact  he  had  no  right,  and  devoted  himself  to  a 
life  of  prayer,  of  good  works,  not  least  of  which  was  the 
careful  education  of  his  children.  His  daughters 
became  the  true  spiritual  children  of  Port  Royal,  and 
suffered  for  and  with  the  Community  in  later  years. 

He  bought  an  estate,  Saint  Jean  des  Troux,  which 
was  a  few  miles  north  of  Port  Royal,  where  his  boys 
were  brought  up ;  some  years  afterwards,  the  youthful 
Tillemont  found  a  refuge  there.  Fontaine,  always 
ready  to  speak  in  glowing  terms  of  his  friends,  has  a 
great  tenderness  for  M.  de  Bagnols,  and  writes  at  some 
length  about  the  holy  life  and  generous  almsdeeds  of  his 
friend.  One  of  M.  de  Bagnols'  special  pleasures  was  to 
give  dowries  to  girls  who  wished  to  enter  Religion. 
Fontaine  quotes  a  particularly  tender  and  fatherly  letter 
written  to  one  of  these,  which  is  too  long  to  give  here. 
M.  Le  Maitre  and  M.  de  Bagnols  had  always  been 

1  A  Maitre  des  Requites  was  an  official  who  received  cases  sent  up 
from  local  Courts  before  they  were  sent  to  the  Parliament. — See  Appendix, 
Note  VI. 


DE  BAGNOLS  AND  DE  BEENlfeRES  259 

united  by  a  very  close  friendship,  and  were  never  long- 
separate. 

Mere  Angdique  writes  to  her  niece,  the  second 
Angelique,  about  M.  de  Bagnols'  death  : — 

"  I  cannot  tell  you  what  I  feel  about  M.  de  Bagnols' 
death  ;  it  seems  to  me  there  is  no  one  left  in  the  world. 
Continually  times  come  to  one,  when  one  feels  one  has 
no  friends ;  everyone  whom  I  see  agrees  with  me.  .  .  . 
The  whole  parish  is  greatly  grieved  at  his  death.  .  .  . 
He  bore  himself  with  such  wisdom  and  charity  that  he 
wounded  no  one,  and  yet  he  never  wronged  truth  nor 
did  he  ever  wrong  an  enemy." 

M.  de  Bagnols'  little  girl  was  at  Port  Royal  with 
the  younger  Angelique,  and  Mere  Angelique  gives 
her  niece  some  account  of  the  conversations  M.  de 
Bagnols  had  had  with  her  on  the  subject  of  his  young 
daughter,  who,  it  seemed,  was  apt  to  be  a  little  idle. 
Mere  Angelique,  never  too  indulgent,  pleads  for  a  little 
relaxation  of  rule  at  this  time  of  sadness,  and  we  are 
pleased  to  note  that  she  advises  Angelique  to  make  the 
child  write  often  to  her  brother. 

Mere  Angelique  wrote  to  Jacqueline  Pascal  also  on 
the  subject  of  the  little  girl,  and  adds  a  tender  word  for 
Sceur  Euphemie  herself. 

M.  de  Bagnols  was  buried  at  Port  Royal  des 
Champs,  and  M.  Hamon  (the  beloved  physician)  wrote 
his  epitaph. 

It  was  rightly  remarked  of  M.  de  Bagnols  and  of 
M.  de  Bernieres  that  they  were  the  "  Procureurs  ge"n£- 
raux  des  pauvres." 

Now  we  are  again  in  touch  with  Pascal.  The  sister 
of  his  beloved  friend,  the  Due  de  Roannez,  the  story  of 
whose  conversion  was  told  in  the  last  chapter,  had 
resolved  to  leave  all  and  enter  Port  Royal.  With  her, 
Blaise  had  had  a  long  correspondence.  She  was  pro- 
foundly impressed  by  the  miracle,  but  she  was  full  of 
doubt  since  the  censure  was  pronounced  against 
Arnauld,  and  pursued  by  anxieties  (not  at  all  un- 
natural under  the  circumstances)  as  to  Port  Royal's 
orthodoxy. 


260  LAST  DAYS   OF   MERE  ANGELIQUE 

As  one  of  Pascal's  recent  biographers,  M.  Boutroux, 
remarks,  these  letters  revealed  to  him  his  vocation  as  a 
spiritual  guide.  He  could  never  have  been  content  to 
be  saved  alone.  "  He  wished  to  be  the  channel  by 
which  grace  should  flow,  and  he  would  fain  use  with 
all  his  faculties  the  light  which  he  had  received  for 
others'  good." 

He  reassures  the  young  girl  as  to  Port  Royal  and 
as  to  the  signs  of  a  true  vocation.  Detachment  can 
never,  he  writes,  be  accomplished  without  suffering. 
He  speaks  of  his  own  spiritual  history.  "  I  try,"  he 
writes,  "to  be  vexed  about  nothing,  and  to  consider 
everything  that  happens  to  be  for  the  best,  for  sin  in 
its  essence  is  opposition  to  the  will  of  God  ;  and  it  seems 
plain  to  me  that  when  He  makes  known  His  will  by 
events,  it  would  be  a  sin  not  to  submit  oneself  to  these 
events.  I  have  learned  that  there  is  something  good 
in  all  that  happens,  since  God's  will  is  stamped  on  it." 

"  And  all  is  right  that  seems  most  wrong, 
If  it  be  His  sweet  Will," 

sang  another  brother  in  the  Faith,  long  afterwards. 

And  then,  convinced  by  his  advice,  Mile.  Roannez 
left  her  home  and  sought  the  noviciate  of  Port  Royal, 
under  the  name  of  Sceur  Charlotte  de  la  Passion. 

But  the  inconvenient  religious  zeal  of  both  M.  le 
Due  and  of  his  sister  had  considerably  irritated  their 
mother,  who  was  a  great  lady,  and  who  was  resolved  to 
get  her  daughter  back.  Mere  Agnes  tells  the  story : 
it  seems  that  another  sister,  already  a  nun  of  another 
order,  doubtless  inspired  with  a  good  deal  of  animus 
against  Port  Royal,  came  with  the  order  of  release — a 
lettre  de  cachet  was  a  weapon  not  infrequently  used 
when  children  gave  their  parents  trouble.  Mere  Agnes 
writes  to  a  nun  at  Tard,  November,  1657  : — 

"  I  must  tell  you  of  our  great  sorrow  in  the  departure 
of  Mile,  de  Roannez,  who  has  been  torn  from  us  with 
extreme  violence,  her  mother  being  absolutely  unwilling 
to  listen  to  any  of  her  reasons  or  requests.  It  is  im- 
possible to  describe  the  grief  of  this  excellent  young 


MLLE.  DE  EOANNEZ  261 

gentlewoman ;  no  doubt  she  might  have  softened  her 
mother,  had  it  not  been  for  a  sister  who  is  a  Bene- 
dictine nun,  and  she  was  present  at  this  good  work !  .  .  . 
She  (Mile,  de  Rpannez)  only  begged  one  favour,  and 
could  not  obtain  it,  which  was  that  she  might  spend  her 
1  fete '  here,  .  .  .  but  the  nun  would  not  allow  it,  and 
said  nothing  but  '  No,  no,  you  must  come  out  of  this.' 
The  poor  girl  cried  almost  bitterly  and  let  these  words 
escape:  'How  wretched  I  am  to ^ have  such  a  sister.' 
An  officer  had  come  with  the  ladies,  who  had  brought 
us  a  lettre  de  cachet  three  months  ago  that  we  were  to 

§ive  up  Mile,  de  Roannez  whenever  her  mother 
emanded  her.  .  .  .  We  were  in  great  sorrow  up  to 
yesterday,  when  she  sent  an  old  governess  of  hers  to 
ask  us  to  send  her  breviary  and  her  devotional  books, 
and  to  tell  us  about  her.  .  .  .  M.  Singlin  is  much 
moved,  ...  he  said  to  her  he  was  more  afraid  of  her 
being  angry  than  of  her  being  unfaithful." 

Mere  Agnes  relates  in  the  same  letter  how  in  a  fit  of 
indignation,  Mile,  de  Roannez,  poor  little  lady,  had  cut 
her  hair  short  to  prove  her  irrevocable  determination  to 
be  a  nun. 

Mile,  de  Roannez  would  not  consent  to  live  any  life 
but  that  of  a  religious.  So  long  as  Pascal  was  alive  she 
was  able  to  be  firm.  But  some  years  later  she  married, 
and  drew  upon  herself  Antoine  Arnauld's  fiercest  anim- 
adversions. He  was  not  so  gentle  as  Dante,  who  merely 
assigns  to  the  gracious  and  beautiful  Piccarda,  who  too 
had  been  forced  to  leave  her  convent  and  marry,  a  place 
in  a  lower  heaven  than  was  granted  to  the  great  ascetics, 
and  made  her  assure  the  poet  pilgrim  of  the  perfect 
happiness  of  all  in  Heaven.1 

On  Pascal  the  miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn  had  an 
enormous  effect.  Some  of  his  later  Provincial  Letters 
appeared  after  the  great  grace  given  to  his  family,  and 
he  probably  had  it  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote  the 
wonderful  burst  of  denunciation  in  the  sixteenth  of  his 
Provincial  Letters  :  "Cruels  et  laches  persecuteurs." 

Port  Royal  was  soon  to  suffer  a  greater  loss.  The 
mightiest  of  the  Solitaires,  Antoine  Le  Maitre,  who  for 

1  Paradiso^  iii.  83-90. 


262  LAST  DAYS  OF  MERE  ANGELIQUE 

some  twenty  years  had  lived  the  life  of  prayer,  of  self- 
abnegation,  of  obscurity,  died  in  1658.  For  some 
months  before  his  last  illness  he  had  been  drawn  to  even 
greater  spirituality ;  some  stray  words  spoken  in  a 
religious  conference  struck  him  with  singular  force,  and, 
as  he  was  accustomed  to  do,  he  opened  his  heart  to  the 
younger  Angelique,  his  cousin,  who  advised  him  to 
speak  to  his  aunt,  Mere  Angelique,  a  person  of  whom 
he  stood  in  considerable  awe. 

With  some  difficulty  he  overcame  his  shrinking  and 
spoke  to  the  Mother  of  the  extraordinary  impression 
produced  on  him  by  the  words  that  had  been  used. 
"  Do  not  be  half-dead  and  half-alive,"  someone  had 
remarked,  "but  wholly  dead  to  yourself  and  alive 
to  God."  There  seems  nothing  particularly  fresh  or 
new  in  the  words,  but  as  so  often  happens,  in  the 
spiritual  life  especially,  some  word  often  heard  before,  or 
some  truth  always  received,  suddenly  becomes  as  it  were 
quick,  keen,  sharp,  and  meant  for  the  particular  soul 
which  has  responded  to  the  word. 

The  Mother  advised  him  to  make  a  fresh  beginning. 
In  these  fresh  beginnings  consists  perfection  ;  and  he  was 
to  go  to  M.  Singlin,  who,  like  St  Cyran,  was  the  director 
par  excellence,  and  again  renew  his  repentance.  M.  Le 
Maitre  seems  to  have  taken  his  aunt  for  a  director — he 
begged  of  her  to  see  him  again  at  the  end  of  a  month, 
and  to  point  out  to  him  any  failings  she  might  have 
noticed  in  him  in  time  past.  He  saw  M.  Singlin,  and  a 
great  peace  and  longing  for  utter  self-surrender  possessed 
him. 

Du  Fosse  nearly  became  a  monk  at  the  Abbey  of 
St  Cyran,  which  was  a  little  north-west  of  Chatillon  ;  he 
writes  pleasant  descriptions  of  the  Abbey. 

M.  de  Barcos,  St  Cyran's  nephew,  seemed  to  Pierre 
severe  and  rigid.  Fosse  found  various  people  there 
whom  he  knew  ;  a  son  of  Madame  de  Fresle,  and  also  a 
son  of  M.  des  Landres  of  Rouville.  But  the  severity 
was  too  much  for  him,  and  he  found  that  M.  de 
Barcos  thought  the  life  of  the  Port  Royal  Solitaires  was 
by  no  means  sufficiently  austere.  M.  Guilbert  urged 


DEATH  OF  ANTOINE  LE  MAITEE    263 

him  to  go  back  to  Port  Royal.  He  gives  a  most  amus- 
ing- description  of  his  growing  dislike  to  the  monastery, 
especially  as  there  were  quantities  of  vipers  which 
frightened  him  horribly.  M.  Singlin  met  him  at  Orleans, 
and  they  returned  to  Port  Royal  together. 

M.  Le  Maltre  received  Du  Fosse  with  much  affection 
but  no  surprise ;  he  knew  that  the  youth  had  no  voca- 
tion for  the  life  at  St  Cyran. 

They  worked  happily  together  at  the  Lives  of  the 
Saints.  Du  Fosse  collected  the  Memoirs  of  the  Sieur 
de  Pontis,  who  had  been  a  soldier  of  fortune,  and  who 
was  now  a  Solitaire  at  Port  Royal.  Fosse's  letter  to 
his  father  when  Le  Maitre  died,  is  most  touching. 

Le  Maitre  took  Fosse's  hand  one  day  of  his  illness, 
and  said : 

"  I  assure  you,  dear  brother,  I  have  only  one  regret, 
and  that  is  to  forsake  you  at  a  time  when  perhaps  I 
can  be  useful  to  you  and  when  God  has  joined  us  to 
each  other  so  closely."  Du  Fosse  sobbed  out — what 
could  he  do?  but  Le  Maitre  said  that  De  Saci  would 
be  his  friend  ;  and  then  he  drew  the  young  man's  hand 
to  him  and  tenderly  kissed  it,  and  told  him  to  go  to  the 
Holy  Communion  and  pray  for  them  both. 

Poor  Du  Fosse  was  like  many  another,  terribly  sad 
that  his  beloved  one  was  in  danger  of  being  unable  to 
receive  the  last  Sacraments  ;  but  he  was  spared  his 
trial.  Le  Maitre  recovered  consciousness,  and  for  the 
last  time  De  Saci  heard  his  brother's  confession  and 
gave  him  "le  pain  des  anges  qui  devait  lui  donner  des 
forces  pour  arriver  comme  le  prophete  jusqu'a  la 
montagne  du  Seigneur,"  says  Du  Fosse. 

Le  Maitre  died  in  November,  1658.  "  Le  grand 
orateur  de  la  langue  Franchise  parle  maintenant  le 
langage  des  anges,"  someone  said. 

Antoine  Le  Maitre  is  a  great  figure.  He  obeyed 
the  call,  he  was  not  disobedient  to  the  Heavenly  Vision 
as  he  saw  it.  The  lives  of  those  who  go  out  to  do 
Christ's  work  in  this  sad  world  seem  more  attractive, 
more  beautiful,  to  some  of  us ;  but  to  each  one  his 
work  and  his  place ;  in  every  age  it  is  a  blessed  thing  if 


264  LAST  DAYS   OF  MEEE   ANGELIQUE 

there  be  found  souls  who  are  called  to  the  vocation  of 
prayer. 

We  feel  that  the  religion  of  Port  Royal  by  no  means 
represents  all  the  beauty  of  Catholic  life;  it  is  too 
self-centred ;  the  note  of  individualism  is  too  strongly 
accentuated.  But  to  every  age  are  given  the  saints 
whom  it  specially  needs,  and  this  note  of  austerity  and 
of  penitence  sorely  needs  to  be  struck  in  all  ages. 

The  Port  Royalists  felt  M.  Le  Maitre's  death 
terribly.  M.  de  Saci,  the  grave,  restrained  younger 
brother,  to  whom  Antoine  Le  Maitre  had  once  found  it 
difficult  to  make  his  confession,  was  plunged  in  grief. 
Mere  Agnes  could  scarcely  recite  her  office. 

'  The  righteous  are  taken  away  from  the  evil  to 
come."  As  one  looks  on  the  sad  history  of  Port  Royal, 
and  one  sees  the  gathering  clouds,  one  feels  how  true 
this  is  of  those  called  to  rest  before  the  worst  of  the 
storm  fell. 

And  another  was  now  to  follow,  Mere  Angelique's 
most  beloved  child,  now  her  Mother  in  Religion,  Marie 
des  Anges.  She  who  had  left  Maubuisson  in  the  hope 
of  being  allowed  to  take  the  lowest  place,  had  meekly 
accepted  the  highest.  She  had  lately  been  re-elected 
for  a  second  period  of  three  years,  but  a  presentiment  of 
death  was  upon  her,  and  as  M.  Le  Maitre  had  done,  she 
too  made  a  general  confession,  a  renewal  of  conversion. 
The  Advent  of  1658  came,  and  the  Mother  lay 
down  on  her  bed  of  pain  (it  was  found  that  she  had 
an  abscess  in  her  side),  saying  in  answer  to  some 
discussion  on  the  relative  benefit  of  a  long  or  of  a  short 
illness  before  death,  that  she  on  the  whole  thought  a 
sharp,  sudden  illness  to  be  preferred,  as  long  sick- 
ness wore  out  the  invalid  and  was  a  great  strain  on 
spirituality. 

The  Mother  after  some  days  asked  for  the  Sacra- 
ments ;  and  it  is  touching  to  read  of  the  really  great 
religious  humbling  herself  to  ask  forgiveness  of  her 
children,  if  in  any  way  she  had  been  hasty,  impatient, 
exacting.  One  of  the  Sisters  who  loved  her  very  much 
asked,  "Are  you  really  very  ill,  Mother?"  "Yes,  my 


DEATH  OF  MAEIE  DBS  ANGES       265 

child,  very  ill ;  but  that  will  pass — we  shall  meet  in 
God,  in  a  way  in  which  we  have  not  met  before ;  in 
His  Light  we  shall  see  Light." 

Another  Sister  asked  a  question  rather  character- 
istic of  the  Port  Royal  attitude  of  mind — was  she 
afraid?  •"  Perhaps  I  shall  be  afraid  when  the  time 
comes,"  she  said;  "I  am  not  frightened  now,  I  am  in 
the  hands  of  God,"  she  went  on,  as  a  weeping  Sister 
implored  her  to  think  of  those  whom  she  was  leaving. 
"  I  will  not  refuse  His  work,  if  it  be  His  will  to  keep  me 
here."  And  as  the  hours  passed  by  and  her  breathing 
grew  more  difficult,  she  said  to  her  dearly  loved  child  Sceur 
Candide,  "  I  am  very  ill,  .  .  .  it  will  soon  be  over,  .  .  .  we 
have  been  so  long  together,  ...  it  is  time  now  to  part, 
...  we  shall  be  together  again,"  and  then  the  touching 
request  for  forgiveness,  deprecated  almost  passionately 
by  the  poor  nun. 

M.  Singlin  brought  her  extreme  unction.  The  next 
day  at  midnight,  as  she  gave  Agnes  Arnauld  the 
"  Dominus  custodiat  introitum  tuum  et  exitum  tuum," 
she  continued,  "quod  in  te  incepit  ipse  perficiat  ad 
suam  gloriam  et  tuam  salutem,"  with  an  evident  pre- 
sentiment that  Agnes  would  be  her  successor.  The 
struggle  was  a  long  one,  but  to  the  very  last  the  sweet 
confidence  and  peace  of  soul  never  left  her.  One  word 
escaped  more  than  once,  "  Ten  years  ago  God  delivered 
me,"  thinking  of  the  heavy  burden  she  had  laid  down 
when  she  left  Maubuisson. 

Marie  des  Anges  is,  next  to  Angelique  and  Agnes, 
the  most  remarkable  woman  of  the  first  period  of  Port 
Royal.  She  had  much  of  the  administrative  power  of 
Angelique,  with  more  tenderness,  possibly  more 
simplicity  in  her  single-hearted  love  of  God.  She  was 
buried  at  Port  Royal  des  Champs. 

Agnes  Arnauld  was  elected  Abbess  in  the  place  of 
Marie  des  Anges.  Her  lot  was  cast  in  evil  days. 
Angelique  writes  : — 

;'  The  satisfaction  of  our  Sisters  and  the  way  in  which 
they  recognised  God's  mercy  to  them  in  giving  you  to 
them,  ought  to  console  you,  dear  Mother,  by  the  assur- 


266  LAST  DAYS  OF  MERE  ANGELIQUE 

ance  that  God,  who  increases  His  gifts  in  those  who 
have  real  gratitude,  will  multiply  His  aids  to  you  to 
direct  them,  and  will  give  us  docility  to  obey  you  most 
truly.  They  will  not  cease  to  pray  for  you,  that  God 
will  preserve  your  bodily  life,  so  that  you  will  help 
them  to  strengthen  and  purify  the  life  of  their  souls. " 

Agnes  is  in  some  way  more  fascinating  and  more 
attractive  than  her  great  sister.  It  was  she  who  drew 
to  Port  Royal  those  great  ladies,  Mme.  de  Sable,  Mme. 
de  Longueville ;  it  was  she  who  corresponded  with 
Princesse  de  Guemenee,  that  rather  scapegrace  friend 
of  Port  Royal.  And  Agnes  also  was  endowed  with 
that  peculiar  grace  of  unction ;  on  the  nuns  whom  she 
trained  when  she  was  Mistress  of  the  Novices,  and 
on  the  Community  in  general  after  she  was  elected 
Superior,  she  had  an  extraordinary  influence.  She 
was  especially  able  to  instruct  in  conferences,  in  the 
Chapters  held  by  the  Community. 

One  of  the  historians  of  Port  Royal  says :  "  Recol- 
lection was  painted  in  Mere  Agnes's  face.  Her  presence 
alone  inspired  everyone.  Only  to  see  her,  was  to  be 
attracted  to  good,"  and  the  historian  goes  on  to 
describe  the  difference  between  the  two  illustrious 
sisters.  He  says  :  '  *  Les  religieuses,'  in  their  Relations, 
remark  that  Mere  Angelique  had  a  great  quickness 
which  plunged  one  into  depths  and  then  raised  one  the 
next  moment,  and  that  Mere  Agnes  was  always  quiet, 
and  could  be  firm,  gentle,  recollected,  and  active." 

Agnes  possessed  a  touch  of  imagination  and  of 
mystic  devotion  which  wins  for  her  letters  a  place  in 
literature.  M.  Faugere,  in  his  beautiful  preface  to  the 
edition  of  Agnes's  letters,  for  which  all  lovers  of  Port 
Royal  must  be  for  ever  grateful,  says  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  read  Agnes's  letters  in  order  fully  to  under- 
stand the  real  spirit  of  Port  Royal.  It  was  a  moral 
regeneration,  "demandee  avant  tout  a  1'inspiration 
directe  de  celui  dont  1' Esprit  Souffle  ou  il  veut." 

No  one  can  read  the  two  volumes  of  her  letters 
without  realising  for  what  the  Community  really  lived, 

1  Faugere,  Introduction  aux  Lettres  de  la  Mere  Agnes. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

C 


MERE  AGNES  207 

and  suffered,  and  prayed,  and  died.  It  is  in  Agnes 
and  in  her  letters,  and  in  M.  de  St  Cyran,  M.  Singlin, 
M.  de  Saci's  exhortations,  in  Fontaine  and  in  Lancelot, 
that  we  must  look  for  the  justification  of  Port  Royal. 
Not  in  "controversies  de  grace,"  in  weary  discussions, 
"du  Droit  et  Fait,"  not  even  in  Pascal,  certainly  not  in 
Antoine  Arnauld  and  his  controversial  writings.  Mere 
Angelique  had  force  of  style  but  less  grace,  less  fervour, 
and  less  of  the  subtle  art  which  pervades  Agnes's  letters, 
and  no  touch  of  the  almost  poetic  charm  which  occasion- 
ally characterises  her  writing.  They  were  complements 
to  each  other,  and  both  were  indeed  great  women  who 
were  called  to  remarkable  vocations. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

PASCAL'S  "  PENSEES  "— HIS  DEATH  (1656-1662) 

THE  work  by  which  Pascal  is  chiefly  known  in  England 
is  the  fragmentary  collection  known  as  his  Penstes. 

It  was  when  he  was  experiencing  the  intense  joy 
which  the  miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn  brought  to  him, 
that  he  conceived  the  idea  of  writing  a  book  for  the 
express  purpose  of  confuting  unbelievers. 

Pascal's  last  years,  from  1657  until  his  death  in  1662, 
were  spent  in  retirement,  in  meditation  on  the  projected 
work.  His  almost  unbroken  ill-health  made  it  nearly 
impossible  for  him  to  do  any  continuous  work,  and  to 
this  we  owe  the  notes  written  on  scattered  leaves — the 
Pensdes. 

Pascal  used  these  years  as  a  veritable  and  true 
Purgatory. 

"  II  monte 

Dove  1'umana  spirito  si  purga 
E  di  salire  al  Cielo  diventa  degno." 

His  health  prevented  him  from  doing  anything  more 
than  jotting  down,  or  at  times  dictating,  thoughts 
on  the  great  problems  which  continually  occupied  his 
mind.  The  Pensdes  are  not  in  any  way  an  apology  or 
a  defence  of  Jansenism. 

In  considering  the  book  which  has  powerfully 
attracted  so  many  minds,  has  elicited  so  many 
conflicting  opinions,  and  has  been  criticised  from  so 
many  different  points  of  view,  we  must  always  re- 
member a  fact  which  seems  to  be  strangely  overlooked 


THE  TEXT  OF  THE  PENSEES        269 

by  some  of  Pascal's  critics,  that  the  Pensdes  date  from 
that  period  of  exaltation  and  of  fervent  faith  produced 
by  the  miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn. 

The  Penstes  have  had  a  chequered  career.  After 
Pascal's  death,  his  sister  and  brother-in-law,  M.  and 
Mme.  Perier,  proposed  to  publish  the  numerous  frag- 
ments of  his  projected  work  which  he  had  left,  with 
as  few  comments,  as  little  alteration,  as  might  be,  and 
to  preface  them  by  an  admirable  sketch  of  Pascal's  life 
written  by  Mme.  Perier. 

But  less  wise  counsels  prevailed.  Antoine  Arnauld 
and  the  Due  de  Roannez  insisted  on  editing-  the  work 
in  a  much  more  drastic  fashion,  and  in  1670  the  first 
edition  appeared  with  a  preface  by  M.  Etienne  Perier, 
the  nephew.  The  Due  de  Roannez  had  the  chief  share 
in  the  work  of  preparing  this  new  edition,  but  Antoine 
Arnauld  and  several  others  aided  him.  The  Port 
Royalists  are  greatly  to  be  excused  for  their  extreme 
caution  and  the  liberty  they  allowed  themselves  in 
editing  Pascal.  The  peace  of  the  Church  had,  when 
the  book  appeared,  closed,  it  was  fondly  hoped,  the 
long  quarrel  between  Jesuit  and  Jansenist,  and  it  was 
desirable  to  soften  some,  or  omit  others,  of  Pascal's 
strong  expressions.  As  M.  Victor  Cousin  says,  what 
in  1660  or  1 66 1  had  been  a  courageous  defence,  might 
well  seem  in  1669  or  1670  a  needless  attack.  And 
indeed  the  book  ran  some  risk  of  being  suppressed  by 
Perefixe,  then  Archbishop  of  Paris. 

M.  Cousin  points  out  that  the  editors  really  did 
Pascal  an  ill-turn,  not  because  they  completed  a  phrase, 
or  inserted  a  word,  but  because  they  altered  Pascal's 
style,  and  "sous  pretexte  de  1'eclaircir,  1'enervent,  1'al- 
longent,  1'allanguissent,  pour  ainsi  dire.  ..." 

It  is  to  M.  Victor  Cousin  and  to  M.  Faugere  that 
we  owe  the  true  text  of  Pascal.  M.  Cousin  pointed  out 
the  extraordinary  liberty  which  had  been  taken  with  the 
text,  and  MM.  Faugere,  Havet,  and  Molinier  have 
produced  editions  which  give  us  the  true  Pascal.  Those 
of  Faugere,  Havet,  Molinier,  Michaut,  and  Brunschvicg 
are  the  best. 


270     PASCAL'S  PENSEES—HIS  DEATH 

Few  indeed  of  the  great  books  of  the  world  have 
exercised  a  more  profound  influence  upon  thinking 
men. 

This  little  volume  of  Thoughts,  written  at  various 
times  and  unconnected  by  their  author,  is  one  of  those 
immortal  books  which  are  ever  fresh,  because  their 
style  and  their  subject-matter  never  grow  old.  For 
Pascal  is  the  author  to  whom  a  certain  class  of  lofty 
souls  always  turn  :  those  on  whom  the  sadness  of  the 
world  weighs,  those  who  feel  the  pressure  of  the  problem 
of  the  destiny  of  man.  ^Eschylus,  Lucretius,  a  Kempis, 
and  many  more  since  his  time,  many  a  sad  pilgrim  of 
modern  days,  are  akin  to  him. 

A  great  controversy  has  raged  around  the  Pense'es. — 
Was  Pascal  really  struggling  in  the  throes  of  scepti- 
cism? 

It  seems  to  us  that  there  is  but  one  answer.  Pascal's 
thoughts  had  their  origin  in  his  passionate  longing  to 
make  the  careless,  unbelieving  world  around  believe,  to 
confute  the  unbeliever,  to  arouse  the  careless,  to  awaken 
the  slumberer.  For  what  after  all  first  gave  to  him  this 
desire? — The  miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn.  In  the 
deepest  gratitude  to  God  for  a  special  mercy  vouch- 
safed to  his  own  family  first  of  all,  and  through  that 
family  to  the  Community  which  he  loved  and  venerated, 
he  planned  his  "apology."  There  may  have  been  in 
earlier  days,  as  we  have  seen,  intervals  of  lukewarmness, 
of  spiritual  dryness,  of  over-preoccupation  with  the 
things  of  this  world,  but — there  was  not  any  period  of 
unbelief;  his  conversions  were  times  of  renewal  of 
purpose,  and  it  is  then  that  "  what  was  a  speck  expands 
into  a  star."  Faith  became  his — the  supernatural  gift 
of  God. 

Pascal  is  stern,  bracing,  and  ascetic.  The  misery 
of  man,  his  inability  to  help  himself,  he  lays  this  before 
us  in  unmeasured  language.  But  Pascal  by  no  means 
bases  his  projected  apology  on  the  ruins  of  man's 
reason.  Certainly  neither  his  confessor  de  Saci  nor 
Antoine  Arnauld  would  have  sanctioned  such  a  work. 
He  does  not  care  greatly  for  scientific  proofs,  nor  think 


PASCAL'S  AEGUMENT  271 

them,  apart  from  Revelation,  of  any  intrinsic  value. 
"  He  knew,"  says  one  of  his  modern  commentators, 
M.  Droz,  "that  in  the  order  of  nature,  beyond  the 
simple  observation  of  facts  and  of  laws,  the  science  of 
to-day  will  be  reformed  and  superseded,  partly  abolished 
to-morrow."  Years  before,  Cardinal  Baronius,  speaking 
of  Galileo,  said  that  "  L'Ecriture  Saint  nous  apprend 
comment  on  va  au  ciel  et  non  comment  va  le  ciel." 

We  have  gone  far  beyond  Paley  and  his  watch,  and 
arguments  from  design,  perhaps  to  find  in  the  doctrine 
of  Evolution  only  a  deeper  proof  of  the  Immanence  of 
God,  and,  as  a  brilliant  and  thoughtful  writer  has  put  it : 
"We  believe  that  mind  is  the  ultimate  reality  behind 
the  world,  not  because  A  fits  into  B,  as  if  B  were  a 
problem  which  the  supreme  mind  had  solved ;  but 
because,  on  the  whole  and  in  the  whole,  there  is  a 
radical  correspondence  of  parts,  and  because  the  thing 
as  a  whole  is  a  working  whole,  working  in  a  way  which 
we  cannot  but  recognise  as  in  its  deepest  meaning 
reasonable. * 

And,  again,  Pascal  thinks  little  of  metaphysical 
proofs ;  in  this  of  course  he  lays  himself  open  to 
criticism.  A  theology  without  metaphysics  is  impos- 
sible. But  he  is  right  in  judging  this  kind  of  proof 
inaccessible  to  the  ordinary  mind. 

In  a  book  we  think  not  sufficiently  read  or  valued, 
Dr  Moberly,  whose  death  was  one  of  the  greatest 
possible  losses  to  thought  and  to  religion,  says  :• — 

"  He  to  whom  metaphysics  is  nonsensical  or  unim- 
portant cannot  have  any  high  rank  as  a  theologian. 
Theology  which  cannot  interpret  to  its  generation  the 
light  of  Divine  revelation  on  the  postulates  and 
character  of  thought,  or  which  has  even  to  cling  to  its 
theological  dogmas  in  despite  of  admitted  principles  and 
requirements  of  thought,  is  at  once  theology  narrowed, 
departmental,  inadequate,  and  is  too  often  felt  to  be,  in 
greater  degree  or  in  less,  theology  dying.  I  am  far  from 
saying  this  in  all  cases  of  the  private  Christian."5 

1  P.  N.  Waggett,  Science  and  Faith. 

2  Reason  and  Religion,  p.  63. 


272     PASCAL'S   PENSEES—  HIS   DEATH 

Reason,  however,  according  to  Pascal,  is  the  basis 
of  religion,  although  it  does  not  penetrate  into  it ;  he 
would,  we  think,  heartily  agree  with  Dr  Moberly, 
who  says  a  little  further  on  than  the  above-quoted 
passage : — 

"  Revelation  may  outstrip  reason,  and  outstripping 
may  often  illumine,  may  sometimes  perplex  it.  But 
that  which  really  contradicts  reason  becomes  an  impos- 
sibility. We  may  believe  what  we  cannot  understand 
or  even  what  appears  to  contradict  our  reason — so  long 
only  as  we  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  contra- 
diction, however  apparent,  is  not  real.  That  was,  as  it 
seems,  the  precise  position  of  the  disciples  at  the  close 
of  the  sixth  chapter  of  St  John."1 

"  If  we  submit  use  to  reason,  there  will  be  nothing 
mysterious  or  supernatural  in  our  religion.  If  we  out- 
rage the  principles  of  reason,  our  religion  will  be  absurd 
and  ridiculous,"  writes  Pascal.  "  Does  not  Pascal," 
writes  M.  Droz,  "render  to  reason  the  most  solemn 
homage  that  could  be  rendered  to  it  by  any  Christian, 
when  he  calls  on  it  to  verify  religion  ? " 

By  "reason,"  what  do  we  mean. 
There  is  ambiguity. 

Dr  Moberly  says,  again  to  quote  Reason  and 
Religion : — 

"There  is,  in  fact,  nothing  but  to  recognise  frankly 
that '  reason '  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  continue  to  be 
used  in  two  divers  senses.  That  which  is  abstracted 
from  the  moral  and  the  spiritual  must  be  still  the 
'  merely '  or  *  distinctly '  rational ;  but  yet,  at  the  very 
same  time,  the  moral  and  the  spiritual  must  be  recog- 
nised as  unreservedly  and  even  more  importantly 
rational  than  the  rational."2 

And  this  is  why  Christianity,  which  ultimately 
satisfies  our  moral  and  spiritual  needs,  can  never  be 
contrary  to,  or  be  set  in  antithesis  to  reason. 

What,  then,  is  Pascal's  method  ? 

First — he  shows  us  the  supreme  necessity  of  moral 
earnestness.  Certainly  this  is  a  lesson  sorely  needed 

1  Reason  and  Religion^  p.  65. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  46. 


PASCAL'S  VIEW  OF  MAN  273 

in  modern  days.  He  dwells  on  the  extraordinary 
temper  which  so  possesses  the  minds  of  men  that  they 
can  treat  the  questions  of  God,  their  own  souls,  the 
possibility  of  a  future  life,  as  open  questions. 

"  Let  them  learn  at  least  what  is  the  religion  they 
attack  before  they  attack  it,"  is  a  passionate  cry  which 
might  well  be  re-echoed  to  many  of  those  who  in  later 
days  have  "  thought  scorn  of  that  pleasant  land,  and 
given  no  credence  to  His  Word."  Pascal's  description 
of  man's  misery,  of  his  frailty,  his  insignificance  and  his 
greatness,  is  never  likely  to  be  forgotten.  "L'homme 
n'est  qu'un  roseau,  mais  c'est  un  roseau  pensant,"  has 
passed  into  a  classical  quotation. 

But  did  he  dwell  too  much  on  that  misery  ?  was  he 
too  deeply  plunged  in  pessimism  ?  No,  not  if  we 
consider  unredeemed,  unregenerate,  human  nature. 

For,  man's  degradation,  his  greatness  and  his  little- 
ness, showed  Pascal  that  Christianity  holds  the  key  to 
the  enigma.  "  Man  has  two  positions  only  which  can 
satisfy  reason. — i.  The  position  of  a  Christian  who  has 
found  God  and  is  serving  Him.  2.  The  position  of  a 
seeker  after  God,"1  says  Newman. 

Pascal  passionately  adjures  those  who  are  in  neither 
case  to  play  the  part  of  one  who  takes  a  wager.  In 
fact,  he  says,  man  can  keep  staking  on  the  game  of 
life  :  "  II  faut  parier  ;  cela  n'est  pas  volontaire,  vous  etes 
embarque." 

It  seems  a  strange  way  of  looking  at  life,  and  yet 
how  true  it  is  that  faith,  the  committal  of  our  souls  to 
God,  is  a  great  venture,  and  an  act  of  courage.  Pascal 
makes  a  high  appeal ;  he  shows  in  his  own  matchless 
eloquence  how  infinite  is  the  gain,  and  that  to  obtain 
the  gift  of  faith,  moral  conditions  are  indispensable. 
This  is  Pascal's  great  argument ;  it  can  never  grow 
old-fashioned : — 

"You  desire  to  reach  faith,  but  you  don't  know  the 

road;  you^would  cure  yourself  of  unbelief,  and  you  ask 

for  remedies.     Learn  of  those  who  once  were  bound  as 

you  are  bound ;  who  now  stake  all  their  possessions ; 

1  Newman's  Apologia,  p.  242.     Eversley  Edition. 


274    PASCAL'S  PENSEES—  HIS  DEATH 

these  are  they  who  know  the  way  you  desire  to  follow  ; 
these  are  they  who  are  cured  of  the  sickness  of  which 
you  long  to  be  healed.  Follow  the  way  they  followed ; 
they  acted  as  if  they  believed,"  etc. 

Another  more  recent  thinker  has  said  the  same : — 

"  Try  the  only  experiment  available — the  experiment 
of  faith.^  Do  the  doctrine,  and  if  Christianity  be^true, 
the  verification  will  come,  not  indeed  immediately 
through  any  cause  of  speculative  reason,  but  immedi- 
ately by  spiritual  intuition. 

"  Only  if  a  man  has  faith  enough  to  make  this  venture 
honestly,  will  he  be  in  a  just  position  for  deciding  the 
issue.  Thus  viewed,  it  would  seem  that  the  experiment 
of  faith  is  not  a  fool's  experiment,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
so  that  there  is  enough  prima  facie  evidence  to  arrest 
serious  attention,  such  an  experimental  trial  would 
seem  to  be  the  rational  duty  of  a  pure  agnostic. 

"  It  is  a  fact  that  Christian  belief  is  much  more  due 
to  doing  than  to  thinking,  as  our  Lord  prognosticated 
in  the  New  Testament.  '  If  any  man  will  do  His  will, 
he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of  God.' ' 

And  Pascal  goes  on  to  show  that  religion  appeals  to 
the  whole  man.  "The  heart  has  its  reasons  which 
reason  knows  not ;  this  is  seen  in  a  thousand  in- 
stances." 

He  then  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  proofs  of  Chris- 
tianity. It  is  in  Christ  that  Pascal  finds  the  solution. 
This  is  what  a  man  who  is  as  yet  sitting  in  darkness 
and  the  shadow  of  death  might  say  : — 

'This  is  what  I  see,  and  it  is  this  which  disquiets 
me.  I  look  around  on  every  side  and  see  nothing  but 
twilight.  Nature  offers  me  nothing  that  is  not  a  cause 
of  doubt,  of  uneasiness.  If  I  saw  nothing  in  Nature 
which^  in  any  way  implies  a  Creator,  I  could  make  up 
my  mind  not  to  believe  in  one.  If  I  saw  on  every  side 
the  traces  of  a  Creator,  I  would  rest  in  peace  in  the 
Faith ;  but  as  I  see  too  much  to  make  it  possible  to 
deny,  too  little  to  make  me  certain  (of  a  Creator),  I  am 
in  a  pitiable  state.  A  hundred  times  I  have  wished 
that  if  there  is  a  God  who  upholds  Nature,  she  would 

1  Romanes,  Thoughts  on  Religion. 


PASCAL'S  VIEWS  ON  OLD  TESTAMENT  275 

unmistakably  indicate  Him ;  but  if  the  traces  she 
points  out  of  Him  are  but  deceits,  she  would  destroy 
them — that  she  would  say  all  or  nothing." 

This  is  an  excellent  example  of  Pascal's  dramatic 
method.  He  is  able  to  see  from  the  point  of  view  of 
other  souls  than  his  own. 

Natural  religion  fails.  The  only  refuge  of  the  soul 
is  Christianity.  Pascal  also  naturally  pushes  aside  all 
other  religions.  The  study  of  comparative  religion  has 
only  very  lately  made  us  really  believe  St  Paul's  words 
(Acts  xvii.!24,  25,  26) :  "The  God  that  made  the  world 
and  all  things  therein,  He,  being  Lord  of  Heaven  and 
earth,  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands  ;  neither 
is  He  served  by  men's  hands,  as  though  He  needed  any 
thing,  seeing  He  Himself  giveth  to  all  life,  and  breath, 
and  all  things."  Pascal  brings  forward  the  proof  of  a 
true  religion.  Christianity  is  founded  on  a  preceding 
religion,  and  he  gives  us  a  masterly  sketch  of  Jewish 
history.  He  bids  his  readers  note  the  wonderful  way 
in  which  the  Jews  had  been  preserved ;  the  lofty 
morality  of  the  prophets ;  the  fulfilment  of  the  real 
spiritual  meaning  of  the  law  and  the  prophets  by  Jesus 
Christ.  Pascal  sees  what  has  been  also  noticed  by  a 
modern  writer.  Whereas  other  nations  looked  sadly 
back  to  their  golden  age  over  a  long  series  of  successive 
declensions,  Israel  alone  "placed  its  golden  age  in  the 
future,"  says  the  present  Bishop  of  Exeter  in  his 
description  of  the  Jewish  ideal  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God.1 

Of  course,  criticism  has  come  in  to  alter  our  views 
on  the  Old  Testament.  But  how  little  after  all  does 
criticism  affect  the  view  of  a  Divine  Idea,  of  a  Divine 
Education,  of  a  Divine  Purpose?  Even  so  advanced 
a  critic  as  Professor  George  Adam  Smith  admits 
this : — 

"It  is  very  evident  ....  that  the  essence  of  the 
truth  about  God's  love^and  the  perfection  of  that  love 
in  suffering,  which  Christ  manifested,  and  which  is  the 
1  Regnum  Dei>  p.  12. 


276    PASCAL'S  PENSEES—  HIS  DEATH 

glory   of   the    Christian   doctrine    of  the   Incarnation, 
was  already  conceived  and  expressed  by  the  prophets." 

In  details,  Pascal  would  in  the  light  of  modern 
research  have  changed,  but  not  in  principle.  The  Old 
Testament  contains  the  types  of  future  joy,  and  the 
New  contains  the  means  by  which  it  is  attained. 
"  L'Ancien  Testament  contenait  les  figures  de  la  joie 
future,  et  le  Nouveau  contient  les  moyens  d'y  arriver. 
Les  figures  etaient  de  joie ;  les  moyens  de  penitence ; 
et  neanmoins  1'agneau  pascal  etait  mange  avec  des 
laitues  sauvages,  'cum  amaritudinibus."  And  then 
comes  the  contemplation  of  the  Gospel  itself,  of  Jesus 
Christ  Himself. 

He  contrasts  material  and  intellectual  greatness  as 
we  see  them  on  earth  with  the  moral  pre-eminence  of 
Jesus  Christ.  No  criticism  can  affect  this — the  empire, 
the  dominion  the  Lord  has  acquired  over  souls.  No 
one  of  our  Lord's  disciples  has  ever  uttered  more 
fervent  bursts  of  adoration,  no  one  has  ever  more 
completely  flung  himself  and  all  his  being  at  Jesus' 
feet. 

"  I  hold  out  my  arms  to  my  Deliverer,  whom  the 
prophets  foretold  for  four  thousand  years,  and  Who 
came  on  earth  at  the  time  and  amid  the  circum- 
stances which  had  been  foretold;  by  His  grace  I  wait 
for  death  in  peace,  in  the  hope  of  being  eternally  united 
to  Him,  and  live  joyfully  whether  it  be  in  the  good  He 
sends  me,  or  in  the  ill  which  He  sends  me  for  my 
welfare,  and  which  He  has  taught  me  to  bear  for  His 
sake." 

Vinet  says  in  his  Etiide  sur  Pascal,  that  there  is  a 
method  of  apology  or  defence  of  Christianity  which 
attacks  the  sceptic  rather  than  defends  the  Christian, 
in  which  "  Religion  does  not  present  herself  so  much 
under  the  aspect  of  an  advocate,  but  rather  under 
that  of  a  judge  ;  the  mourning  robe  of  one  who  pleads  is 
exchanged  for  the  toga  of  the  magistrate ;  the  'apologia' 
is  not  only  a  justification,  but  passes  into  praise,  homage, 

1  Lectures  on  Modern  Criticism^  p.  176. 


MIEACLES  277 

adoration,  and  the  monument  which  is  erected  is  not  a 
citadel,  but  a  temple." 

Pascal  has  some  profound  thoughts  on  God  such  as 
He  is  revealed  to  us  in  Christ ;  for  one  of  Pascal's  most 
deeply  meditated  and  systematic  conclusions  is  that 
without  Christ  we  can  know  nothing"  of  the  Nature  of 
God.  "  All  those  who  seek  God  outside  Jesus  Christ, 
and  who  stop  at  Nature,  either  they  find  nothing  to 
satisfy  themselves,  or  they  attain  a  means  of  knowing 
God  and  serving  Him  without  a  Mediator ;  they  arrive 
at  Atheism  or  Deism,  which  the  Christian  Religion 
almost  equally  abhors,"  says  Pascal.  Pascal  of  course 
considers  miracles  from  his  own  point  of  view,  and  now- 
adays our  standpoint  is  a  little  changed  ;  and  yet,  as 
has  been  said  by  a  recent  and  critical  writer  :  "  We  must 
very  narrowly  limit  the  area  in  which  it  is  reasonable 
to  conclude  the  possibility  that  extraordinary  and 
unaccountable  events  may  have  occurred  " 1 ;  and  indeed 
perhaps  it  is  less  difficult  for  us  of  this  age  to  admit 
the  possibility  of  seeming1  suspension  of  natural  laws. 

Yet  we  wrho  believe  in  the  religion  of  Christ  rather 
believe  the  miracles  because  of  Christ,  than  Christ 
because  of  miracles. 

Pascal  considered  that  there  are  three  distinguishing 
marks  of  true  religion  :  perpetuity,  holiness,  miracles — 
and  Christianity  has  these. 

Pascal's  arguments  remind  us  as  we  read  them  of 
Bishop  Butler.  A  writer  in  a  striking  essay2  says: 
"  Both  these  great  writers  insist  that  all  things  form  a 
connected  scheme  too  wide  and  deep  for  us  to  com- 
prehend ;  both  are  emphatic  on  man's  ignorance ;  both 
address  unbelievers,  and  prefer  to  offer,  not  demonstra- 
tive evidence,  but  something,  and  what  bears  on  practice 
rather  than  theory.  Both  dwell  on  the  power  of  habit, 
and  recommend  the  formation  of  habits  of  religion ; 
both  regard  the  Gospel  as  a  remedial  interposition  sent 
into  a  fallen  world  ;  both  consider  miracles  and  prophecy 
^especially  the  latter)  to  be  the  proper  proofs  of  the 

1  Rashdall  in  Contentio  Veritatis. 

2  The  Guardian  of  7th  November,  1900, 


278    PASCAL'S  PENSEES—  HIS   DEATH 

Gospel ;  both  insist  that  a  moral  test  for  the  searcher 
is  provided  by  the  very  insufficiency  (logically  speaking) 
of  the  evidence ;  both  take  a  grave  and  awful  view  of 
life,  have  a  lofty  and  fervent  moral  tone,  lead  up  to  the 
Cross  ;  both  put  aside  metaphysical  and  teleological 
arguments ;  both  mention  Judaism  as  a  cardinal  piece 
of  evidence ;  both  point  out  the  purpose  of  the  visible 
Church  as  set  up  to  be  an  abiding  witness  through  the 
ages  ;  both  ask  the  doubter  to  put  the  question  to  him- 
self, '  What  is  safest  ?  What  practically  is  my  interest  ? ' 
both  are  the  product,  not  of  the  study  or  the  seminary, 
but  of  conversation  and  the  experience  of  life." 

Pascal's  Pensdes  are  but  a  brilliant  fragment  of  a 
never  accomplished  work,  but  they  are  a  great  con- 
tribution to  thought.  The  distinguished  opponent  of 
Christianity — of  the  eighteenth  century — found  Pascal 
his  chief  adversary.  Voltaire's  notes,  brilliant  as  they 
are,  read  to  us  as  somewhat  shallow,  captious,  and 
arrogant.  We  of  this  age  have  set  up,  at  any  rate, 
different  "  idols  of  the  market-place,"  and  Voltaire  does 
not  speak  our  language.  But — Pascal  does  not  grow 
old-fashioned,  nor  out  of  sympathy  with  us,  with  our 
difficulties,  our  problems,  our  moral  sickness ;  and  so 
long  as  men  still  ask  the  questions  propounded  long  ago 
by  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes,  so  long  will  they  turn  to 
this  book  of  fragments,  so  lofty,  so  intense,  so  faultless 
in  style,  so  keen  in  its  insight,  so  unsparing  in  its  moral 
requirements,  so  bracing  in  its  exhortations,  so  passion- 
ate in  its  appeals. 

Pascal's  Thoughts  are  to  be  regarded  in  another 
aspect.  As  Dean  Church  pointed  out  in  his  sermon 
on  Pascal,  they  can  be  treated  as  a  companion  to  the 
devout  life.  The  Penstes  have  their  value  and  their 
place  among  the  books  which  are  profitable  for  growth 
in  devotion,  in  the  true  life  of  the  soul.1 

"For  Pascal's  view"  (to  quote  from  Dean  Church) 
"of  religion  rises  out  of  these  solemn  and  unfathomable 
depths,  the  abyss  of  life  and  pain  and  death,  the  abyss 
of  sin  and  ignorance  and  error,  the  abyss  of  redemption 

1  Pascal  and  other  Sermons -,  p.  5. 


THE  CHIEF  POINTS  IN  HIS  TEACHING  279 

and  of  God's  love."  It  is  a  book  which  braces  us  up  to 
look  the  facts  of  life  in  the  face.  It  is  right  that  at  times 
Christian  souls,  safe  in  the  shelter  of  the  Father's  house, 
untroubled  by  doubts,  should  know,  at  least  vicariously, 
of  what  some  noble  souls  have  had  to  bear. 

"  Le  silence  eternel  de  ces  espaces  infinis  m'effraie." 
It  is  good  that  we  should  ponder  on  these  perplexities 
and  problems  which  are  implied  in  these  words.  For 
to  think  of,  and  to  sympathise  with  the  intellectual 
sorrows  of  the  world,  to  know  something  of  the  pain 
of  doubt,  does  teach  us  to  avoid  littleness,  pettiness  in 
our  religion. 

We  are  so  apt  to  degenerate  if  we  allow  either  the 
intellectual  or  the  practical  sides  of  religion  to  be  turned 
quite  out  of  sight.  We  become  formalists,  intent  on 
the  outward,  on  correctness,  on  the  details  of  ritualism, 
on  external  rules ;  or  we  become  sentimental,  content 
with  a  shallow  pietism,  with  glib  repetition  of  shib- 
boleths. 

Pascal  is  the  type  of  mind,  sympathy  with  whom, 
study  of  whom,  will  purify  and  deepen  those  who  learn 
from  him. 

As  we  turn  over  the  pages,  we  constantly  meet 
sentences  which  tear  away  the  complacency  which  pos- 
sibly may  wrap  us  round,  as  to  our  beliefs  and  our  posi- 
tion in  the  scheme  of  things,  and  which  pull  us  back  to 
the  most  elementary  truths. 

And  if  we  take  Pascal  for  our  guide,  what  are  the 
points  of  his  teaching  which  strike  us  most  ? 

Surely  as  we  turn  over  the  few  pages  of  the  little 
volume,  we  are  taught  the  supreme  earnestness,  the 
awful  seriousness  of  human  life ;  we  learn  from  him  to 
see  something  on  the  one  hand  of  the  extraordinary 
importance  of  human  life,  of  the  few  years  in  which  we 
may  make  our  choice  ;  on  the  other,  of  the  extraordinary 
non-importance  of  much  of  what  the  world  deems  all- 
important. 

Again,  as  we  have  said,  we  are  brought  face  to  face 
with  problems  tof  life.  But  besides  these  we  surely 
learn  the  truth  of  Browning's  line :  "How  very  hard  it 


280    PASCAL'S  PENSEES—HIS  DEATH 

is  to  be  a  Christian."  We  see  the  aspect  of  Christian 
life  which,  however  much  we  know  of  peace  and  of  joy, 
can  never  be  ignored,  of  mortification,  of  self-denial,  of 
sternness.  This  is  needed  now  as  much  as  ever.  We 
are  not  to  live  for  ever  in  a  panic,  but  if  ever  we  feel 
that  life  is  smooth,  devotion  easy,  and  the  ugly  side  of 
life  well  out  of  sight,  Pascal's  severity,  Pascal's  over- 
whelming sense  of  the  seriousness  of  life  may  well 
brace  and  reprove  us. 

The  characteristic  of  Pascal's  religious  life  was  an 
intense,  passionate  devotion  to  our  Blessed  Lord,  and 
in  Him  and  through  Him  to  His  Church,  to  His 
Sacraments. 

"  Jesus  Christ  is  the  object  of  all  (things),  and  the 
centre  to  which  everything  gravitates.  He  who  knows 
Him,  knows  why  all  things  are." 

There  is  a  deep  self-abasement  running  through  the 
Pensdes  which  is  the  mark  of  all  saints  through  the 
ages.  As  we  ponder  on  his  deeply-rooted  conviction 
of  man's  nothingness  and  of  God's  greatness,  we  feel 
we  are  breathing  the  atmosphere  of  David,  of  St  Paul, 
of  Augustine,  of  many  another. 

Pascal  is  too  much  occupied  with  great  elementary 
truths  not  to  see  the  folly  of  controversy  on  Sacra- 
ments : — 

"  I  do  hate  these  follies — not  believing  in  the 
Eucharist,  etc.  If  the  Gospel  is  true,  if  Jesus  Christ 
is  God,  what  difficulty  is  there?  The  last  work  for 
reason  is  to  know  that  there  is  an  infinity  of  things 
which  are  beyond  and  above  reason." 

How  grimly  would  Pascal  have  smiled,  how  passion- 
ately would  he  have  denounced  the  folly  of  modern 
sceptics  who  find  prayer  unreasonable,  or  even  an 
impertinence. 

To  read  Pascal,  is  to  have  brought  home  to  one  the 
extraordinary  folly  of  measuring  things  divine  by 
human  measures,  prayer  tests,  e.g.,  such  as  have  been 
gravely  proposed  by  eminent  men  of  science.  How 
Pascal  would  have  brought  his  delicate  irony,  his 
passionate  scorn  to  bear  on  these. 


PASCAL'S  SPIRITUAL  INSIGHT      281 

And  yet  how  far  removed  he  is  from  any  weakness, 
anything  like  superstition. 

"The  method  of  God,  Who  arranges  all  things 
gently,  is  to  impart  religion  to  the  intellect  by  reason 
and  to  the  heart  by  grace,"  he  says  ;  and  in  another  place, 
"To  let  piety  run  into  superstition  is  to  destroy  it." 

It  is  interesting  as  one  reads  the  Pensdes  to  notice 
Pascal's  deep  spiritual  insight.  For  instance,  how  true 
are  these  two  Pensdes : — 

"  The  circumstances  (of  life)  in  which  it  is  most  easy 
to  live  according  to  the  world  are  the  most  difficult  in 
which  to  live  according-  to  God,  and  the  reverse  is  true. 
Nothing  is  so  difficult  as  the  religious  life  according-  to 
the  world  ;  nothing  according  to  God  so  easy.  Accord- 
ing to  the  world,  nothing  is  easier  than  life  when  one  is 
in  a  good  position  and  has  wealth ;  nothing  is  more 
difficult  than  to  live  in  possession  of  these  and  yet  to 
be  in  accordance  with  God,  not  being  attached  to  them 
and  loving  them." 

Again,  "A  person  told  me  one  day  that  after  con- 
fession he  felt  great  joy  and  trust ;  another  said  he 
remained  fearful.  I  think  one  good  (man)  could  be 
made  out  of  these  two.  Each  needed  something  the 
other  possessed.  This  is  true  of  many  other  things." 

Pascal  speaks  in  clear  tones  of  the  struggles  that 
await  us  in  our  Christian  life. 

After  speaking  of  the  war  in  our  members,  he 
goes  on  : — 

'  The  most  cruel  war  which  God  can  make  against 
men  in  this  life  is  to  leave  them  without  that  war  which 
He  came  to  bring  them.  '  I  am  come  to  bring-  war,' 
He  said." 

How  many  people  imagine  that  to  be  an  Agnostic 
is  to  live  a  strenuous  life  in  the  thick  of  conflict.  They 
imagine  that  the  Christian  life  is  soothed  and  quieted, 
that  it  is  a  sort  of  intellectual  slumber. 

But  the  saints  of  God  have  told  us,  and  no  one  more 
clearly  than  Pascal,  that  it  is  when  we  have  made  our 
choice,  when  we  have  dared  to  put  behind  us  such 


282     PASCAL'S   PENSEES—  HIS  DEATH 

questions  as  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  of  the 
Existence  of  God,  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  and  all  that  it  implies,  that  our  real  life 
begins — a  life  of  conflict,  indeed,  of  incessant  strain,  but 
the  life  of  the  man  who  has  put  away  childish  things, 
and  who  through  conflict,  through  strain,  through 
upward  yearnings  comes  "dal  martiro  a  questa  pace," 
to  a  country  "  whose  air  is  very  sweet  and  pleasant, 
the  way  lying  directly  through  it.  ...  They  heard 
continually  the  singing  of  the  birds,  and  saw  every 
day  the  flowers  appear  on  the  earth,  and  heard  the 
voice  of  the  turtle  in  the  land." 

"  In  this  country,  the  sun  shineth  night  and  day ; 
wherefore  this  was  beyond  the  valley  of  the  Shadow  of 
Death,  and  also  was  out  of  the  reach  of  Giant  Despair, 
neither  could  they  from  this  place  so  much  as  see 
Doubting  Castle"* 

Yet  this  pleasant  land  is  only  reached  by  a  life  of 
incessant  struggle,  and  men  pronounce  glib  verdicts 
on  the  Faith,  and  hold  themselves  aloof  from  it,  and 
declare  themselves  in  favour  of  a  sort  of  crude  Agnos- 
ticism, not  because  they  are  really  intellectually 
bewildered,  but  because  the  life  of  a  Christian  makes 
far  too  rigorous  a  demand  on  the  moral  nature. 

"  But  Pascal,  above  all,  is  a  great  spiritual  guide  in 
that  he  shows  the  right  way  to  Faith.  Faith  is  self- 
committal,  self-surrender ;  it  is  an  action  of  the  whole 
man,  it  is  by  obedience,  by  submission  to  the  laws 
which  govern  spiritual  life  that  one  grows  in  the  know- 
ledge of  God."  This  is  a  lesson  needed  more  than  ever 
in  our  day. 

Wherein  does  Pascal  come  short  of  full  realisation 
of  Christian  life  ? 

Undoubtedly  there  is  little  of  the  fruit  of  joy. 
Pascal  has  no  conception  that  since  the  Incarnation 
the  whole  of  human  life  is  hallowed.  His  language 
about  marriage,  about  the  tender  relationships  of  life— 
a  mother's  caress,  for  instance — is  horrible.  He  seems 
to  have  committed  the  usual  error  of  not  a  few  elect 

1  Pilgrim's  Progress. 


PASCAL'S  LIMITATIONS  283 

souls — the  error  of  imagining-  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
to  be  entirely  in  the  future.  He  seems  to  know  little 
of  what  mystical  writers  call  the  Unitive  Way.  We 
miss  in  his  writings  the  sweetness  and  tenderness,  the 
wholesome  humour  of  those  who  have  grasped  the 
meaning  of  the  Love  of  God. 

Vinet's  criticism,  however,  is  singularly  unjust — that 
Pascal's  defects  came  from  his  Catholicism.  To  those 
who  know  the  peculiarly  sunny  effect  of  the  Catholic 
religion  at  its  best,  this  seems  absurd.  He  is  more 
true  when  he  says  that  not  St  Paul  nor  St  John,  nor 
the  Master  Himself,  have  spoken  of  human  life  and 
destiny  in  more  encouraging  terms  than  does  Pascal. 

That  is  quite  true  when  we  think  of  unregenerate 
humanity.  But  where  Pascal  seems  to  come  short  is 
in  his  relations  to  the  Church  of  God.  His  realisation 
of  all  that  Christian  life  may  mean  seems  to  be 
imperfect,  and  yet  it  is  probably  because  in  the  Pensdes 
we  have  only  one  or  two  sides  of  the  great  whole,  that 
in  these  immortal  fragments  he  is  chiefly,  if  not 
entirely,  thinking  of  the  world  without  God,  the  world 
as  it  organizes  itself  without  God,  and  indeed  in  that 
spectacle  there  is  room  for  nothing  but  profound 
sadness.  And  Pascal,  we  must  remember,  cared  little 
for  and  knew  very  little  of  history. 

It  has  been  the  vocation  of  thinkers  of  a  later  age  to 
turn  men's  minds  to  the  thoughts  of  the  immanence  of 
God  ;  to  all  events  of  history,  the  revelations  of  thought, 
the  movements  of  society,  as  but  working  out  the 
Divine  Purpose. 

Pascal  did  not  see  all  that  perhaps  he  might  have  seen 
of  the  Love  of  God,  but  he  fills  a  place  in  the  great  Temple 
of  which  the  stones  are  cut  and  sharpened  by  the  Master 
Builder,  each  unlike  any  other.  He  has  done,  and  still 
does,  a  great  work.  He  brings  the  soul  of  him  who  will 
listen  to  this  sternest  of  teachers,  this  most  unflinching 
of  prophets,  face  to  face  with  great  realities  ;  he  rebukes 
the  cowardice,  the  folly,  the  criminality  of  that  apathy 
which  can  treat  such  realities  as  open  questions,  and 
which  is  quite  as  prevalent  in  our  age  as  in  his  own  ;  he 


284    PASCAL'S   PJSNSEES—HIS   DEATH 

makes  us  ashamed  of  our  pettiness,  our  half-hearted- 
ness,  our  inclination  to  be  of  those  whom  Dante  has 
held  up  to  scorn.  "  Ne  fur  fedeli  a  Dio,  ma  per  se 
foro." 

He  has  seen  "  the  Lord,  high  and  lifted  up,"  and  the 
vision  made  him  glad  with  a  passionate  devotion,  with  a 
whole-hearted  fervour,  which  still  have  force  to  kindle 
others  as  they  read. 

It  is  a  great  book,  and  it  still  speaks  to  us  in  tones 
which  are  strangely  modern,  in  language  which  we  can 
understand. 

There  have  been  saints,  greater  than  Pascal,  who, 
unsparing  to  themselves,  have  seen  that  for  others 
marriage  and  earthly  ties,  and  the  caresses  of  little 
children  are  all  Sacraments,  all  marks  of  God's  love,  all 
ways  of  approaching  God. 

But,  in  spite  of  this,  poor  Blaise  had  all  the  tender- 
ness and  love  which  characterises  the  followers  of  the 
Lord,  and  it  is  wonderful  to  turn  away  from  the  irony 
of  the  Provincial  Letters  and  the  sadness  of  the  Pensdes 
to  the  contemplation  of  his  inner  life,  and  there  learn 
something  of  the  common  secret  of  the  saints,  the  Love 
of,  the  devotion  to,  our  Lord. 

We  read  his  words  "  Le  Mystere  de  Jesus,"  and  we 
feel  ourselves  in  the  common  fellowship.  One  by  one, 
all  Christ's  servants  come  to  this — the  knowledge  of 
Christ.  "  Console- toi,  tu  ne  me  chercherais  pas,  si  tu  ne 
m'avais  trouve." 

It  is  this  devotion  to  our  Lord  which  is  the  secret  of 
the  ardent  desire  for  self-mortification.  Pascal  mortified 
himself  in  every  way  that  he  could  devise.  He  made 
himself  indifferent  to  food,  and  little  by  little  he 
retrenched  every  superfluity  and  cut  off  every  pleasure. 
More  and  more  he  grew  in  simplicity  and  fervour  and  in 
love  for  Holy  Scripture ;  he  particularly  loved  to  recite 
the  "Little  Hours"  (Prime,  Terce,  Sext,  and  None), 
because  they  are  chiefly  composed  of  his  favourite 
Psalm  CXIX.  (Vulgate  CXVIII.). 

A  very  few  months  before  his  own  death,  his  sister 
Jacqueline,  broken-hearted  by  the  presecutions  which 


PASCAL'S  LAST  DAYS  285 

had  come  upon  Port  Royal,  or  perhaps  we  should  rather 
say,  by  having  been  forced  by  persecution  to  act 
somewhat  against  her  conscience,  Jacqueline,  Sceur 
Euphemie,  had  died  ;  when  her  much-loved  brother,  who 
was  devotedly  attached  to  her,  was  told,  he  replied, 
"God  give  us  grace  to  die  as  well";  perhaps  he  felt 
their  parting  was  not  to  be  for  long. 

He  too  was  overwhelmed  by  the  fear,  not  of  perse- 
cution, but  that  persecution  might  cause  defection. 
As  we  shall  see,  there  was  some  attempt  at  compromise, 
and  Pascal,  whose  clear  eyes  saw  the  evils  of  any 
attempt  at  evasion,  fainted  awray  after  a  meeting  of 
the  principal  Port  Royalists,  Antoine  Arnauld,  his 
friend  Nicole,  and  others,  when  it  was  determined  that 
some  compromise  should  be  tried.  After  this,  his 
health  declined. 

Pascal  died  under  Mme.  Perier's  roof  almost  by 
accident :  he  had,  two  months  before  he  died,  become 
very  ill,  and  was  under  special  medical  treatment. 
While  in  this  state  he  took  into  his  house  a  whole 
family  of  poor  people,  among  whom  small-pox  broke 
out.  Afraid  lest  Mme.  Perier  might  run  some  risk  if 
she  insisted  on  visiting  him,  ill  as  he  was,  he  took 
up  his  abode  with  the  Periers,  and  a  few  days  after- 
wards was  attacked  with  violent  internal  pain.  He 
grew  so  ill  that  although  the  doctors  were  not  alarmed, 
he  himself  sent  for  his  parish  priest  and  made  his 
confession.  But  as  this  frightened  some  of  his  friends, 
he  put  off  his  Communion,  and  as  he  grew  more  ill  the 
difficulty  of  making  it  grew  very  great,  as  it  was 
almost  impossible  for  him  to  receive  fasting,  and  he 
did  not  seem  ill  enough  to  receive  It  as  for  the 
Viaticum.  It  seems  extraordinary  that  he  was  kept 
without  Communion  in  spite  of  his  great  wish  to 
receive,  and  his  own  presentiment  of  death. 

With  touching  submission  he  said  that  as  he  was 
deprived  of  Communion,  he  would  like  to  have  some 
poor  sick  person  brought  into  the  house  and  tended 
with  equal  care.  His  devoted  sister  was  willing  to  do 
this,  but  no  suitable  invalid  could  just  then  be  found. 


286    PASCAL'S  PENSEES—  HIS   DEATH 

One  evening  he  was  so  ill  that  he  asked  for  a  second 
medical  opinion,  and  then  rather  drew  back,  fearing 
that  he  was  over  careful  and  self-absorbed.  Mme. 
Perier,  however,  had  this  done,  and  still  the  doctors 
declared  that  there  was  no  danger.  However,  Mme. 
Perier  sent  a  message  to  the  parish  priest  to  have 
everything  ready  to  communicate  the  poor  invalid  the 
next  day,  and  it  was  well  that  she  did  so.  In  the 
night  he  became  so  ill  that  his  friends  thought  he 
would  die  without  that  Bread  of  Life  for  which  he  so 
hungered.  And  early  the  next  day  It  was  brought, 
and  he  was  communicated  and  received  Extreme 
Unction.  Twenty-four  hours  afterwards,  the  poor, 
much-tormented,  anxious  soul  passed  to  the  Presence 
of  the  Lord  whom  he  had  so  earnestly  desired,  whom 
he  had  tried  so  hard  to  serve. 

On  the  igth  of  August  1662,  the  great  soul  of 
Blaise  Pascal  left  this  world.  He  was  only  thirty- 
nine. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  DAYS   OF  TRIBULATION   ( 1 66 1- 1 669) 

WE  must  now  return  to  Port  Royal.  Evil  days  were 
fast  coming  upon  the  devoted  band  of  priests,  nuns, 
hermits,  and  pupils,  none  were  to  be  spared.  For 
these  eight  years  Port  Royal  was  enduring-  one  long 
agony.  The  Petites  Ecoles  were  finally  broken  up  and 
the  pupils  dispersed  in  March,  1660.  In  1656,  the 
children  who  were  brought  up  at  Les  Granges  had 
been  dispersed,  but  the  schools  which  had  been  set  up 
at  Chenai,  the  estate  of  M.  de  Bernieres,  lingered  on 
until  1660,  when  all  the  children  were  sent  to  their 
home.  M.  de  Bernieres  was  strictly  forbidden  to 
receive  any  more  children,  and,  as  M.  de  Bagnols  was 
dead  and  could  not  be  punished,  his  children  were 
taken  from  their  house  at  Les  Troux  and  sent  to 
Lyons. 

This  was  but  the  signal.  Louis  XIV.  firmly 
believed  that  the  Port  Royalists  were  heretics,  con- 
spirators closely  allied  to  the  Frondeurs,  and  as 
intellectual  and  independent  qualities  were  in  his  eyes 
dangerous,  he  resolved  to  "make  an  end."  In  his  mind 
Protestants  and  Port  Royalists  were  much  alike,  and 
to  destroy  both,  to  extirpate  both,  was  part  of  his 
scheme  of  things.  "  L'Etat  c'est  moi,"  he  said,  and  no 
kind  of  resistance,  ecclesiastical  or  political,  was  to  be 
tolerated,  and  he  was  now  (1661)  Absolute  Monarch 
and  needed  no  Jesuit  confessor  to  urge  him  on  to 
do  what  was  entirely  in  accordance  with  his  own 
wishes. 

287 


288        THE  DAYS   OF   TEIBULATION 

The  subscription  to  the  formulary  of  1656  was  to  be 
vigorously  enacted ;  not  only  was  it  to  be  signed  by 
priests,  but  by  nuns,  teachers  in  schools,  heads  of 
colleges,  any  kind  of  person  who  on  one  pretext  or 
another  could  be  made  to  sign. 

But  even  before  this  demand,  the  devoted  Com- 
munity was  roughly  dealt  with.  On  the  2  3rd  of  April, 
1 66 1,  a  visit  was  made  to  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  and  a 
day  later  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs.  The  Abbess 
was  informed  that  all  the  young  girls  who  were  being 
brought  up  at  either  place  were  to  be  sent  home  within 
three  days.  The  alleged  cause  was  that  the  children 
were  being  educated  in  controversy.  Marguerite 
P£rier,  the  subject  of  the  miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn, 
wrote  afterwards  that  neither  she  nor  her  sister,  girls 
of  seventeen  and  fifteen,  knew  anything  about  contro- 
versy, nor  had  they  even  heard  of  Jansenists  and 
Molinists. 

It  is  not  very  hard  to  realise  the  heart-breaking 
grief  which  invaded  the  Community,  accompanied  also 
by  that  religious  exaltation  which  is  granted  to  many 
in  the  early  days  of  any  kind  of  trouble. 

A  great  persecution  was,  they  believed,  about  to 
commence ;  all  of  them  went  to  the  Mother  (Agnes 
Arnauld)  and  asked  if  they  should  go  out  closely  veiled 
when  they  were  led  out  to  execution,  as  was  the 
custom  when  they  appeared  before  persons  of  the 
other  sex. 

It  was  no  light  sorrow  which  took  possession  of 
their  young  hearts.  Port  Royal  inspired  its  members 
with  loyalty  and  love,  and  those  who  were  so  rudely 
torn  away  for  ever  cherished  the  deepest  gratitude  and 
affection  for  their  teachers  and  their  Superiors. 

Mere  Angelique  was  at  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  in 
a  very  feeble  state  of  health.  It  is'  impossible  not  to 
quote  a  letter  of  hers  to  her  sister  Agnes  : — 

"  I  think  neither  you  nor  I  will  have  in  the  future 
any  health,  any  more  than  we  have  a  continuing  city 
in  this  world,  and  that  we  must  think  of  our  life  only 
as  a  perpetual  offering  to  God,  knowing  neither  the 


ANGELIQUE  LEAVES  PORT  EOYAL  289 

day  nor  the  hour  when  He  will  call  us,  knowing  not  if 
we  shall  have  then  the  power  to  offer  it  to  Him.  My 
dear  Mother,  I  think  you  are  wrong  in  not  venturing 
to  apply  to  yourself  those  words  of  our  Father  St 
Bernard  which  I  sent  to  you,  since  Jesus  Christ  who 
is  pur  righteousness  is  also  our  conversion,  our  recon- 
ciliation, our  knowledge  of  God,  and  everything  which 
we  need  ;  and  as  He  has  been  so  merciful  to  us  that  we 
are  in  our^wretchedness  and  poverty  in  His  Faith  and 
in  the  Unity  of  the  Church,  we  can  and  ought  to  have 
in  Him  all  that  is  wanting  to  us. 

'  I  think,  as  you  do,  that  very  few  people  know  God, 
and  I  think  it  of  myself  chiefly  ;  but  we  shall  have  our 
part  in  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ ;  see  Him,  my 
very  dear  one,  and  in  seeing  Him,  we  shall  see  in  Him 
His  Father.  Sometimes  I  am  in  great  fear,  and  I  try 
to  rest  in  silence  before  God.  I  hope  that  His  Mercy 
will  hold  us  up.  These  are  the  times  of  the  last  and 
hardest  sufferings.  We  must  pray  God  to  comfort  our 
hearts  to  bear  them.  The  bitterness  of  bodily  sufferings 
afflicts  the  soul,  but  the  hidden  strength  of  the  Lord 
fortifies  it  in  weakness." 


Angelique  felt  sure  that  the  hour  of  danger  was  at 
hand,  and  resolved  to  journey  to  Paris,  and  on  the  23rd 
of  April  she  bade  her  home  farewell ;  never  more  was 
she  to  see  the  Abbey  where  so  much  of  her  life  had 
been  spent,  where  she  had  first  heard  the  call  of  that 
Voice  which  she  had  always  from  that  hour  obeyed  to 
the  best  of  her  ability.  Already  the  order  had  been 
given  for  M.  Singlin's  retirement  from  his  office  as 
Superior ;  he  had  gone  into  hiding,  and  Angelique 
foresaw  that  much  more  would  follow. 

As  she  left  Port  Royal,  her  brother,  M.  d'Andilly, 
came  to  say  farewell,  and  to  his  cheerful  words  of 
confidence  she  replied  in  solemn  tones,  "  Let  us  re- 
member that  humility  without  stability  is  cowardice, 
but  courage  without  humility  is  presumption."  She 
drove  on,  and  presently  met  M.  Daubray,  the 
magistrate  whose  unpleasing  duty  it  was  to  carry 
out  Louis  XIV.'s  commands.  How  very  little  he  liked 
his  business  the  following  letter  may  show;  it  is 


290       THE  DAYS   OF   TRIBULATION 

dated    the     23rd    April,     and    is    addressed    to    M. 
d'Andilly  :— 

"  Monsieur,  I  had  intended  to  visit  you  at  Port 
Royal,  but  all  my  proceedings  have  been  so  unfortunate, 
I  thought  I  ought  to  spare  you  this.  I  had  not  courage 
to  take  you  by  the  hand,  and  bring  you  bad  news  at 
the  same  moment.  Madame  1'Abbesse  de  Port  Royal 
de  Paris  (Agnes  Arnauld)  has  enabled  me  to  get  rid  of 
a  portion  of  my  commission,  and  for  the  rest,  which  is 
only  a  formality,  to  hand  it  over  to  Picart,  who  will,  with 
your  permission,  intimate  to  the  Prioress  and^the  other 
officials  of  the  house,  my  notification,  which  is  handed 
in  by  the  King's  pleasure.  He  (Picart)  will  acquit 
himself  with  all  the  respect  due  to  so  holy  a  Community. 
Forgive  the  necessity  under  which  I  labour." 

M.  Daubray  had  been  this  very  day  to  Port  Royal 
de  Paris,  accompanied  by  the  Procureur  de  Roi  (public 
prosecutor),  and  received  a  list  of  names  of  pupils  who 
were,  by  command  of  the  King,  to  be  sent  home.  Agnes 
asked  what  was  to  be  done  with  the  postulants,  but 
received  no  definite  answer,  and  naturally  when  she 
asked  what  they  had  done  to  deserve  such  treatment, 
M.  Daubray  could  give  no  reason. 

Agnes  gave  to  the  officials  a  list  of  pupils  at  Port 
Royal  des  Champs,  and  again  anxiously  inquired 
through  M.  Singlin,  who  was  present,  what  was  to 
be  done  with  the  postulants  who  were  to  be  received 
the  next  day  ? 

Angelique,  on  hearing  from  M.  Daubray  the  nature 
of  the  King's  orders,  replied,  "  Thanks  be  to  God,  carry 
this  news  to  my  Sisters,  and  bid  them  fear  nothing  and 
hope  only  in  God,"  and,  turning  to  the  others  in  the 
carriage,  "We  must,  my  Sisters,  give  thanks  to  God 
for  all  things  and  at  all  times ;  let  us  say  the  Te 
Deum." 

She  arrived  at  Paris  just  two  hours  after  Daubray 
had  left,  and  found  the  whole  party  in  a  state  of  com- 
plete misery. 

"What, "said  Angelique,  "are  there  tears  here,  have 
you  no  faith?  You  hope  in  God,  and  yet  you  are 


THE  EEMOVAL  OF  THE  CHILDEEN     291 

afraid!  Believe  me,  only  fear  God,  and  all  shall  be 
well."  And  then  breaking  into  passionate  prayer,  she 
ejaculated  :  "  O  God,  have  pity  on  Thy  children  ;  O  God, 
let  Thy  holy  will  be  done."  But  in  spite  of  her  lofty 
courage,  Angelique's  heart  was  torn  by  the  sight  of 
the  children  and  the  novices,  and  the  moments  of  fare- 
well were  terrible,  as  one  by  one  the  poor  children  came 
to  say  "  Good-bye."  This  misery  dragged  on  for  a  whole 
week,  for  it  was  impossible  to  arrange  to  send  everyone 
away  immediately  at  such  sudden  notice,  especially  in  the 
case  of  several  whose  relations  were  away  from  Paris. 
Ten  little  twelve-year-old  girls  begged  to  be  clothed  as 
novices,  others  begged  to  be  made  lay  Sisters,  about 
whose  exclusion  nothing  had  been  said.  Nor  were  the 
relations  of  the  children  at  all  pleased  ;  in  fact,  it  needed 
a  tolerably  strong  hint  from  the  Minister  Colbert,  who, 
it  will  be  remembered,  had  replaced  Fouquet  (and,  by 
the  way,  Port  Royal  was  supposed  to  be  favourable  to 
the  unfortunate  financier),  to  induce  the  Due  de  Luines 
to  withdraw  his  three  daughters. 

Angelique  had,  on  her  arrival,  decided  to  clothe 
several  postulants  at  once  ;  the  eldest  of  the  Demoiselles 
de  Luines  pleaded  hard  to  be  allowed  to  join  them,  but 
Mere  Angelique  told  her  it  was  impossible  to  receive 
her  without  the  Due  de  Luines'  consent.  The  Due 
consulted  his  mother,  the  well-known  Duchesse  de 
Chevreuse,  and  what  he  heard  made  him  fully  aware 
of  the  uselessness  of  trying  to  keep  the  novices,  and 
Mile,  de  Luines  and  her  sisters  were  taken  away — the 
eldest,  usually  known  as  Madame  de  Luines,  and  two 
younger  ones.  The  two  eldest  never  wavered  in  their 
devotion  to  the  Religious  Life,  and  became  nuns.1 

Mile,  de  Bagnols  and  Mile,  de  Montglat,  and  the 
Perier  sisters  also,  lived  in  the  same  spirit  of  unwavering 
fidelity  to  Port  Royal. 

The  parting  with  the  eldest  Mile,  de  Luines,  and 
with  Mile,  de  Bagnols,  was  specially  heartrending ;  they 
had  been  at  Port  Royal  since  early  days  ;  the  mother  of 

1  Bossuet  carried  on  a  correspondence  with  the  younger,  who  was 
known  as  Madame  d'Albret. 


292        THE  DAYS   OF   TRIBULATION 

one  and  the  father  of  the  other  were  dead.  Mme.  de 
Chevreuse,  who,  after  a  stormy  life,  was  living  in  great 
devotion,  came  to  take  them  away,  and  Angelique,  as 
she  gave  her  children  her  last  embrace,  replied  to  the 
grandmother,  who  said  something  about  her  courage, 
' 'Madame,  when  there  is  no  God  I  will  lose  courage, 
but  so  long  as  God  is  God  I  will  hope  in  Him,"  and 
then  turning  to  Mile,  de  Luines,  who  could  not  be 
comforted,  "Go,  my  child,  hope  in  God,  trust  in  His 
infinite  love  with  all  your  heart,  and  do  not  let  yourself 
be  cast  down.  We  shall  meet  in  another  place,  where 
men  will  have  no  power  to  separate  us." 

And  these  sad  scenes  went  on ;  as  a  friend  wrote 
to  Antoine  Arnauld :  "The  Guardian  Angels  of  these 
lambs  are  very  busy  gathering  up  their  tears  and 
bearing  them  into  the  Presence  of  God." 

Processions  were  made  and  Litanies  were  sung; 
Angelique  fell  to  the  ground  during  one  of  these,  and 
was  carried  to  her  bed,  to  finish  her  long  agony. 

Mere  Agnes  in  her  capacity  as  Abbess  made  a  very 
dignified  and  respectful  remonstrance  to  the  King. 
She  points  out  to  him  that  never  had  the  Community 
received  any  ecclesiastical  censure  whatever,  and 
reminded  him  of  the  signal  marks  of  God's  favour 
so  lately  bestowed. 

According  to  the  Histoire  des  Persecutions,  the 
King  said  some  kind  things  about  the  letter,  but  did 
nothing  to  relieve  the  misery. 

Another  trial,  which  was  perhaps  as  great  as  any 
which  could  have  befallen  Mere  Angelique,  now  came 
on  her. 

On  the  5th  of  May  M.  Singlin  was  compelled  to  go 
into  hiding,  and  after  saying  Mass  he  left  his  flock, 
who  received  a  letter  from  the  King  ordering  the 
Grands  Vicaires  to  choose  as  a  Superior  one  out  of 
seven  names.  The  King  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Clergy 
in  which  he  mentions  his  "desire  to  see  the  true 
doctrine  of  the  Church  flourish  in  the  Convent,"  and 
orders  M.  Singlin  to  retire  into  Brittany.  On  Monday, 
May  gth,  the  devoted  nuns  received  a  letter  from  their 


ANGELTQUE'S  COURAGE  293 

beloved  Superior  breathing-  calmness  and  charity. 
4 'In  prayer,  silence,  and  hope,  God  being-  all  our 
strength,  in  them  we  must  enclose  our  defence  and 
our  justification." 

On  the  1 3th  May,  for  the  third  time,  M.  Daubray 
and  the  public  prosecutor  arrived  at  Port  Royal,  and 
presented  the  letters,  at  the  same  time  reprimanding 
the  Abbess  on  the  part  of  His  Majesty  for  having 
4 "clothed"  the  novices.  They  also  intended  to  arrest 
M.  Singlin,  but  as  he  was  not  at  Port  Royal  the 
command  could  not  be  executed. 

M.  Bail  was  chosen  by  the  Grands  Vicaires  to 
succeed  M.  Singlin.  The  Abbess  declined  to  receive 
M.  Bail  as  Superior,  but  she  consented  to  receive  him 
as  sent  by  the  Grands  Vicaires. 

Eight  postulants  and  seven  novices  left  Port  Royal ; 
the  novices  declined  to  take  off  their  habits.  The 
Abbess  had  left  it  to  them  to  decide,  and  they  one  and 
all  dared  to  brave  the  anger  of  the  King.  One  of  the 
postulants  was  allowed  to  stay  behind ;  she  proposed 
to  become  a  lay  Sister,  and  as  lay  Sisters  were  not 
mentioned,  she  escaped  banishment. 

Angelique,  from  her  bed  of  sickness,  wrote  to  M.  de 
Sevigne,  uncle  of  Madame  de  Sevigne,  who  had  for  a 
year  been  living  a  life  of  penitential  devotion,  and  who 
was  a  lover  of  Port  Royal : — 

"  So  at  last  our  Merciful  God  has  deprived  us  of  all, 
fathers,  sisters,  and  children.  May  His  holy  name  be 
blessed.  Sorrow  is  here,  but  peace  and  entire  submis- 
sion to  the  Divine  ^  Will  are  here  also,  and  we  are 
persuaded  that  this  visitation  is  a  great  token  of  God's 
mercy  to  us,  and  that  it  was  absolutely  needful  in  order 
that  we  might  be  purified  and  ready  to  use  the  grace 
we  have  received  in  such  abundance." 

But  Angelique  was  brave  and  dignified.  With  her 
dying  hand  and  with  failing  strength  she  wrote  a 
remonstrance  to  Anne  of  Austria,  in  which  she  points 
out  how  far  removed  from  a  controversial  atmosphere 
was  that  habitually  breathed  by  the  nuns  of  Port 


294        THE  DAYS   OF   TRIBULATION 

Royal.  It  is  quite  true  that  a  few  leading  spirits,  such 
as  the  second  Angelique,  M.  d'Andilly's  daughter, 
knew  the  points  of  dispute  and  had  probably  read 
Arnauld's  Frtquente  Comrmtnion,  but  the  great 
majority  lived  in  perfect  ignorance  and  entire  sim- 
plicity, and  it  is  probable  that  Angelique  de  St  Jean 
and  the  others  talked  very  little. 

M.  Bail  again  arrived  at  Port  Royal  and  proceeded 
to  insist  on  replacing  the  ordinary  confessors  of  Port 
Royal  by  priests  of  his  own  choosing.  The  names  of 
the  confessors  were  M.  de  Rebours,  who  died  very 
soon  afterwards,  M.  Akakia  du  Mont,  and  M.  d  Alencon. 
Mere  Angelique  was  so  ill  that  it  seemed  doubtful 
whether  she  would  live  more  than  a  few  days,  and  on 
the  nth  June  she  received  Viaticum.  M.  Singlin  and 
her  nephew  De  Saci  wrote  to  her  frequently,  and  at 
first  De  Saci  came  to  see  his  aunt,  but  it  was  felt  to  be 
unsafe  for  him  to  do  so,  and  Angelique  adjured  her 
sisters  not  to  let  him  run  any  risks.  The  Bastille  or 
the  Bois  de  Vincennes  seemed  a  likely  fate  for  both 
these  priests. 

Agnes  sympathised  much  with  Angelique  in  the 
withdrawal  of  M.  Singlin.  Angelique's  words  are  very 
remarkable:  "God  wills  it,  that  is  enough.  For 
myself,  I  feel  M.  Singlin  as  much  with  me  in  his  affec- 
tion as  if  I  saw  him  with  my  eyes.  I  greatly  valued 
and  do  value  his  direction,  but  I  have  never  put  a  man 
in  the  place  of  God." 

In  the  meantime  M.  Bail  was  engaged  in  treating 
the  Community  as  one  wholly  devoid  of  elementary 
Christian  knowledge.  On  the  5th  June  the  formulary 
was  brought  to  the  Port  Royalists ;  an  order— 
"mandement" — had  been  drawn  up,  explained  by  the 
Grands  Vicaires  in  terms  which  it  was  hoped  the  Port 
Royalists  might  conscientiously  accept.  With  infinite 
pain  it  was  signed  by  both  Communities,  but  Jacqueline 
Pascal's  heart  was  broken,  and  she  died  two  months 
afterwards.  She  wrote  a  long  letter  to  the  younger 
Angelique,  in  which  she  explained  her  difficulties.  She 
says : — 


THE  VISITATION  OF  POET  ROYAL    295 

"What  is  easier  than  to  reply,  'I  know  the  respect 
due  to  the  Bishops,  but  I  cannot  in  conscience  sign  an 
affirmation  that  something  is  in  a  book  which  I  have 
not  seen  ' ;  and  then  having  ^said  this,  simply  wait  the 
issue  of  events?  Of  what  is  it  that  we  are  afraid? 
exile  for  priests,  dispersion  for  ^  nuns,  seizing  of  our 
temporal  goods,  prison  or  death,  if  you  wish.  But  that 
surely  is  our  glory,  our  joy.  But  you  say  'they  will 
cut  us  off  from  the  Church ' ;  but  no  one  can  be  cut 
off  in  spite  of  himself;  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
bond  between  His  members  and  Himself;  we  may  be 
deprived  of  exterior  marks,  never  of  the  effect  which 
follows  this  union." 

Jacqueline  Pascal  was  a  child  of  Savonarola. 
Antoine  Arnauld  induced  her  to  sign,  but  the  sacrifice 
was  quite  useless. 

Angelique,  the  great  Ang6lique,  lay  dying,  suffering 
much  from  the  fear  which  is  sometimes  allowed  to 
possess  the  most  holy  souls,  as  they  realise  more  and 
more  the  awful  holiness  of  God,  the  awful  hatefulness 
of  sin.  Her  one  request  was  that  all  who  loved  her 
would  pray  that  God  would  forgive  her.  In  this  spirit 
she  received  the  afflictions  which  were  coming  so 
thick  and  fast  upon  Port  Royal ;  she  would  allow  no 
word  of  censure  against  those  who  carried  out  the 
orders  of  the  King.  The  very  last  time  that  she  saw 
the  Community  together,  she  entreated  their  prayers 
for  her  that  God  would  give  her  patience,  and  bring  low 
her  pride. 

The  Visitation  of  the  Convent  began  on  the  I2th 
July,  and  was  carried  on  by  the  new  Superior,  M. 
Bail,  and  by  M.  de  Contes,  Dean  of  Notre  Dame ; 
and  after  Mass  M.  de  Contes  said  a  few  words  which 
were  quite  gentle  and  moderate.  M.  Bail  followed  him 
in  a  discourse  which  must  have  astonished  the  unfortu- 
nate Sisters.  He  spoke  of  the  various  visitations  of 
God  mentioned  in  Holy  Scripture ;  then  of  the 
necessity  of  visiting  Religious  houses ;  and  then 
explained  the  supposed  doctrine  of  Jansenius,  and 
exhorted  them  to  examine  themselves  as  to  this 
"damnable  doctrine,"  so  much  akin  to  that  of  Calvin. 


296        THE   DAYS   OF   TRIBULATION 

It  is  difficult  to  realise  the  effect  on  the  unfortunate 
nuns,  who  knew  that  nothing"  was  further  removed 
from  their  ordinary  life  and  conversation  than  contro- 
versies on  grace  or  election  ;  to  hear  themselves  roundly 
accused  of  something  very  like  Calvinism  must  have 
had  the  effect  of  a  thunderbolt.  Then  Bail  did  not 
stop  there.  There  were  references  to  sin,  to  that 
which  was  utterly  foreign  to  any  sort  of  religious 
practice,  to  all  sorts  of  irregularities,  which  must  have 
seemed  outrageous  insults  to  nuns  who  had  been 
instructed  by  men  such  as  De  Saci  and  Singlin,  and 
who  very  probably  had  not  so  much  as  ever  heard  an 
allusion  to  sin  in  the  gross  sense  of  the  word. 

Bail  was  brutal,  destitute  of  spiritual  insight,  and 
the  outraged,  insulted,  terrified  Community  burst  into 
general  weeping  at  the  conclusion  of  his  harangue. 
In  vain  M.  de  Contes  tried  to  sooth  them. 

The  priests  mounted  to  Mere  Angelique's  room, 
who  received  them  with  much  of  her  old  vigour.  ;t  The 
day  of  the  Lord  would  come,"  she  said,  "and  all  things 
would  be  made  manifest." 

M.  Bail  interrogated  fifteen  Sisters.  He  began 
with  the  accusation  that  at  Port  Royal  Communion 
was  infrequent ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Sisters  made 
their  Communion  on  Sundays,  holy  days,  Thursdays, 
and  on  other  special  days.  On  the  Prioress  (Agnes  de 
Ligni)  being  asked  if  anyone  had  ever  been  cut  off 
from  Communion  for  three  months,  she  exclaimed : 
"  Jesus  Maria,  we  should  have  thought  ourselves 
excommunicated."  And  then  at  the  question,  "  Did 
Christ  die  for  all  men?" — " Yes,"  replied  the  nuns;  as 
one  by  one  they  were  asked,  "  Had  they  ever  read 
controversial  books  ?  " — "  No." 

Poor  old  Sisters  tottered  in ;  among  them  one  who 
had  been  there  before  Mere  Angelique,  and  had  been 
converted  in  those  happy  days,  now  so  far  distant,  of 
the  first  generation  of  Port  Royal.  Nothing  but  what 
was  good  could  be  extracted  from  them ;  they  knew 
nothing  of  controversy,  they  went  to  confession  and 
Communion,  they  tried  to  be  obedient  and  loving, 


THE  YOUNGER  ANG^LIQUE          297 

they    were  perfectly    happy,   they  could    only   accuse 
themselves,  no  one  else,  of  any  fault. 

Another  Sister  had  heard  Port  Royal  attacked 
before  she  joined  the  Community  ;  once  she  was  in  that 
Convent,  she  found  how  utterly  false  the  calumnies 
were. 

Angelique  de  Saint  Jean  was  received  by  the 
priests  as  one  who  at  last  could  really  give  them  some 
information.  They  questioned  her  as  to  the  number 
of  Arnaulds  "in  religion,"  and  M.  de  Contes  said: 
11 II  faut  avouer  que  Dieu  a  rendu  votre  famille  une 
famille  de  benediction ; "  to  which  Angelique  replied  : 
"Nous  en  sommes  bien  obligees  a  sa  misericorde, 
Monsieur,  mais  cette  benediction  de  Dieu  ne  nous 
met  pas  a  couvert  de  la  malediction  des  hommes." 

Angelique  was  quite  another  order  of  being  from 
those  who  had  preceded  her.  She  dwelt  on  the  terror 
of  the  novices;  "who  indeed  would  not  be  frightened? 
They  are  compared  to  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  to 
magicians,  to  the  '  possessed '  at  Auxonne ;  isn't  that 
enough  to  overwhelm  them?  Indeed  we  don't  know 
what  it  means."  Poor  M.  Bail  tried  lamely  to  justify 
himself,  and  plunged  still  further  into  inextricable 
difficulties  by  alluding  to  St  Paul's  severity  to  the 
Corinthian  sinner  ;  to  which  Angelique  warmly  replied, 
that  the  evils  which  St  Paul  rebuked  did  not  exist  at 
Port  Royal. 

She  justified  her  Community  with  great  ability, 
refuted  the  charge  of  Calvinism,  and  satisfied  the 
priests  as  to  her  orthodoxy  on  the  subject  of  grace  and 
on  the  instruction  she  gave  to  the  novices,  of  whom  she 
was  Mistress.  The  priests  must  have  been  really 
puzzled. 

After  Angelique  had  retired,  they  questioned  the 
next  Sisters  as  to  what  objects  of  piety  were  permitted, 
as  to  how  the  nuns  made  their  confessions,  as  to  their 
consultations  with  their  Mother. 

More  than  one  of  M.  d'Andilly's  daughters  were  inter- 
rogated, but  of  them,  as  of  all  the  rest,  could  only  be 
said  :  "  Elle  croit  tout  ce  que  la  Sainte  Eglise  croit" 


298        THE   DAYS   OF   TRIBULATION 

Another  of  the  nuns  was  Racine's  aunt ;  she  was  a 
good  deal  frightened  by  being  questioned  as  to  whether 
one  could  resist  efficacious  grace  ;  she  hardly  knew  what 
to  say.  Her  little  piece  of  autobiography  is  very 
interesting.  She  nursed  the  sick ;  she  had  been  received 
without  any  dowry  ;  she  was  sometimes  afraid  of  hard 
work,  but  the  thought  of  ministering  to  our  Lord  Him- 
self in  the  persons  of  the  sick  helped  her. 

One  of  a  numerous  band  of  sisters  named  Robert,  on 
saying  she  had  sometimes  been  to  M.  Antoine  Arnauld 
for  confession,  was  eagerly  asked  as  to  what  he  said  ; — 
had  he  never  talked  of  matters  of  controversy?  " No," 
replied  the  Sister,  "he  exhorted  her  to  ask  God's  help 
always,  in  every  need,  and  said  that  the  greatest  fault 
of  all  was — discouragement." 

One  of  the  most  touching  recitals  was  that  of  Sceur 
Eugenie,  whom  we  remember  as  Mme.  de  Saint  Ange ; 
she  of  course  was  known  by  name  to  the  priests ;  she 
told  them  how  her  great  affliction  (widowhood)  had  made 
her  wish  to  become  a  nun  and  how  she  had  entered  Port 
Royal,  and  of  the  peace  which  had  been  granted  her. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  give  many  details  of 
these  conferences.  The  questions  were  nearly  always  : 
"Did  Christ  die  for  all  men?"  "Could  grace  be 
resisted?"  "How  often  did  the  nun  who  was  then 
being  questioned  go  to  confession  and  Communion?" 
and  then  a  variety  of  other  details. 

One  of  the  last  of  the  Sisters  of  Port  Royal  de  Paris 
to  be  questioned  had  been  in  attendance  on  the  Queen  of 
Poland,  Mere  Angelique's  beloved  Marie  de  Gonzague. 
She  had  shown  Sceur  Marguerite,  the  nun  in  question, 
the  various  writings  for  and  against  Port  Royal,  and  at 
the  Queen's  advice  had  entered  Port  Royal.  She  gave 
M.  Bail  and  M.  de  Contes  a  most  vivid  account  of  the 
perils  of  her  journey  back  to  France  from  Poland,  in 
the  travelling  carriage  of  a  lady  returning  to  France, 
and  of  the  "perils  from  robbers  "  which  she  had  under- 
gone. The  journey  lasted  six  weeks. 

Christine  Briquet,  of  whom  we  shall  see  more,  was 
compelled  to  undergo  a  complete  catechism  on  such 


THE  VISITATION  OF  POET  EOYAL  299 

elementary  subjects  as  the  Sacraments,  and  the 
articles  of  the  Faith,  and  to  repeat  an  act  of  contrition. 
M.  Bail  made  a  good  many  of  the  younger  sisters 
answer  questions  on  the  Faith  as  taught  in  the  ordinary 
Catechism. 

Then  came  the  visit  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  of 
which  the  Mere  du  Fargis,1  was  Mere  Prieure  ;  she  was 
much  surprised  and  overwhelmed  to  hear  that  it  was 
reported  by  various  people  that  the  children  who  had 
been  taken  away  from  Port  Royal,  had  represented, 
themselves  as  taught  the  various  heresies  attributed 
to  Port  Royal ;  of  course  this  was  a  manifest  absurdity. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  go  through  the  examinations 
of  each  Sister ;  they  were  much  the  same  as  at  Port 
Royal  de  Paris  ;  but  there  is  a  pathetic  interest  attached 
to  that  of  Sceur  Euphemie  (Jacqueline  Pascal).  She 
answered  with  grave  dignity,  and  with  no  attempt  at 
repartee.  When  asked  why  so  many  souls  were  lost, 
she  replied  :  "  I  own  that  the  thought  of  the  lost  saddens 
me  very  often,  especially  when  I  see  a  crucifix,  and  I 
say  to  our  Lord,  '  O  my  God,  after  all  Thou  hast  done 
for  us,  how  can  it  be  that  so  many  are  lost  ? '  But 
when  these  thoughts  come  into  my  mind,  I  turn  away 
from  them,  because  I  do  not  think  I  ought  to  try  to 
penetrate  into  the  hidden  things  of  God.  And  so  I 
content  myself  with  praying  for  sinners."  M.  Bail 
seems  to  have  been  impressed  by  Jacqueline  Pascal ;  he 
gave  her  many  blessings. 

It  is  very  touching  to  read  the  lay  Sisters'  examina- 
tions ;  they  are  so  naive,  so  absolutely  ignorant  of  what 
all  this  "vacarme"  is  about,  so  fully  persuaded  that  all 
is  peace  and  union,  and  that  there  is  just  one  rather  im- 
perfect person  in  the  Community,  and  that  one  the 
Sister  who  is  speaking. 

Certainly  as  we  read  these  touching  accounts,  we 
feel  how  truly  miserable  a  thing  is  religious  controversy, 

1  Henriette  d'Angennes  du  Fargis,  daughter  of  the  Marquis  du  Fargis, 
and  known  in  Religion  as  La  Mere  Marie  de  Sainte  Magdeleine,  had 
been  brought  up  from  her  earliest  childhood  at  Port  Royal,  and  was  a  true 
child  of  Mere  Angelique. 


300        THE  DAYS   OF   TRIBULATION 

and  how  equally  to  blame  were  those  who  manufactured 
the  Formulary,  and  those  who  were  responsible  for 
the  resistance  to  it.  But  a  certain  number  of  Sisters, 
Angelique  de  Saint  Jean,  Sceur  Euphemie,  Christine 
Briquet,  and  others,  had  read  the  Provincial  Letters, 
and  knew  that  St  Cyran  as  well  as  Jansenius  was 
condemned.  The  propositions  they  all  abhorred,  the 
avowal  that  they  were  held  by  the  friend  of  him  whom 
they  revered  as  a  second  founder  was  impossible. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  Lieutenant  Civil,  the  King's 
prosecutor,  visited  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  and  carefully 
examined  the  various  sets  of  apartments  occupied  by 
various  ladies  ;  several  doors  were  walled  up ;  the  idea 
was  prevalent  that  constant  meetings  were  held  and 
plots  hatched  at  Port  Royal.  Mere  Angelique  lay 
dying-  and  suffering  extreme  desolation  and  fear.  The 
fear  of  death  had  taken  hold  on  her.  But  one  day  her 
dear  friend  and  confessor,  M.  Singlin,  contrived  to 
come  and  see  her,  and  he  so  comforted  her,  that  as  he 
was  going  away,  she  said  :  "  My  father,  I  shall  not  see 
you  again,  but  I  promise  you  I  will  no  longer  be  afraid 
of  God." 

Mere  Angelique  grew  daily  more  like  Him  to  Whom 
she  had  given  herself.  She  refused  to  say  anything 
against  those  who  were  persecuting  Port  Royal ;  they 
were  but  instruments  in  God's  hands.  'You  must  not 
say  that,  my  children,"  she  said  one  day,  when  some- 
thing had  been  mentioned  about  those  who  were 
blocking  up  the  doors.  c<  We  must  pray  God  alike  for 
them  and  for  ourselves,  that  He  will  be  merciful  to  us, 
and  that  His  holy  will  may  be  done." 

As  the  days  went  on  and  she  grew  daily  weaker,  she 
seemed  to  live  in  continual  prayer.  One  day  she  was 
murmuring:  "Our  salvation  in  the  time  of  trouble." 
Angelique  de  St  Jean  said  in  one  of  those  moments  of 
uncontrollable  anguish:  "Oh,  Mother,  this  time  of 
trouble  has  really  come  upon  us."  "It  is  good  for  us, 
my  child,"  replied  Angelique.  This  was  on  the  4th  of 
August.  On  the  5th  she  received  Holy  Viaticum,  and 
fell  into  a  sort  of  stupor,  from  which  she  was  roused  to 


DEATH  OF  MEKE  ANGELIQUE        301 

send  a  message  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  and  on  the 
6th  of  August  (the  Feast  of  the  Transfiguration)  she 
passed  from  her  long  agony  to  the  Mount  of  God.  She 
was  buried  at  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  but  her  heart  lies 
at  Port  Royal  des  Champs. 

Angelique  was  of  the  number  of  great  religious 
women.  Noble,  strong,  self-sacrificing,  single-hearted, 
absolutely  loyal  to  her  Lord,  she  had  grown  continually 
in  character ;  she  was  a  real  saint.  She,  as  M.  St 
Beuve  says,  would  have  repressed  the  extraordinary 
passion  for  writing  about  themselves  which  possessed 
those  of  the  second  generation  of  Port  Royal.  She 
knew  how  soon  firmness  and  constancy  can  be  changed 
into  self-will  and  obstinacy.  Somehow  we  cannot  help 
feeling  that  if  she  had  been  younger  and  had  lived  some 
years  longer,  the  fortunes  of  her  Community  might 
have  been  different.  One  cannot  tell ;  she  and  St 
Cyran  made  Port  Royal  and  formed  the  noble  band  of 
men  and  women  who  were  dragged,  almost  unknown  to 
themselves,  into  the  storms  which  finally  wrecked  them, 
so  far  as  this  world  is  concerned. 

We  have  seen  that  the  inspection  of  Port  Royal  was 
concluded  in  September  1661,  and  Mere  Agnes  wrote 
to  her  nephew,  Henri,  Bishop  of  Angers  : — 

"Our  visitation  is  over,  and  we  have  been  left  in 
the  same  state  as  we  were  before.  Those  who  directed 
it  could  make  no  remark  on  our  faith,  which  they 
recognized  as  being  entirely  orthodox.  But  we  have 
reason  to  remind  ourselves  of  St  Paul's  words — if  our 
conscience  accuse  us  not  in  any  matter,  we  are  not 
justified  thereby  in  the  sight  of  men — because  we  are 
again  treated  as  criminals,  although  our  crime  has  not 
yet  been  discovered ;  and  since  the  time  that  M.  Bail 
has  searched  for  it  with  an  unequalled  keenness,  he  was 
obliged  to  say  to  us  in  conclusion  that  he  had  found 
nothing  for  which  he  did  not  feel  compelled  to  give  God 
thanks.  He  did  not  fail  to  add  that  he  would  have 
been  sadly  afflicted  if  he  had  discovered  any  of  the  things 
which  he  suspected,  for  in  that  case  he  would  have  been 
compelled  to  try  extreme  measures,  expulsion,  excom- 
munication, as  of  enemies  of  the  Church,  and  that  it 


302        THE  DAYS   OF   TEIBULATION 

would  have  been  a  great  evil  for  someone  to  have  said  : 
" St  Augustine  is  on  my  side;"  others  would  have 
quoted  St  Paul,  and  there  would  have  been  no  cure. 
Such  are  the  pleasing  saying's  of  this  excellent  person, 
who  is  burning*  with  zeal  against  imaginary  enemies, 
and  who  is  incapable  of  ridding  himself  of  the  suspicions 
he  has  that  those  who  were  our  spiritual  guides  are 
infected  with  this  new  heresy." 

Mere  Agnes  was  very  weary,  and  no  trial  could 
have  cut  so  deep  as  this  accusation  of  heresy.  And 
these  were  indeed  days  of  trouble  and  rebuke.  M. 
d'Andilly  fell  ill;  the  Mere  Marie  des  Anges  and 
Pascal's  sister  were  both  expected  to  die,  worn  out  by 
the  anxieties  and  scruples  about  the  first  "  Mandement," 
and  indeed,  as  we  know,  Sceur  Euphemie  passed  away 
in  October. 

M.  Bail  and  M.  le  Contes  drew  up  a  report  of  their 
inspection,  which  we  need  not  give  in  its  entirety. 
Amongst  other  things  they  reported  that  they  found 
the  house  rightly  ordered,  the  rules  strictly  kept, 
the  Sacraments  frequented,  and  simplicity  and 
devotion  throughout.  No  wonder  after  this  that 
Agnes  thought  she  might  entreat  permission  to  admit 
novices. 

The  Grands  Vicaires  of  Paris,  finding  the  first 
"  Mandement"  insufficient,  now  put  out  a  second,  on  the 
3ist  of  October  1661.  Naturally,  no  enemy  of  Port 
Royal  was  satisfied.  No  one  really  supposed  that  any 
Port  Royalist  would  hesitate  for  one  moment  to 
condemn  the  famous  five  propositions,  but  the  new 
"  Mandement"  exacted  a  simple  signature  without  any 
modification.  It  was  drawn  up  at  the  request  of  the 
Papal  Nuncio,  and  no  distinction  was  to  be  made 
between  " fait"  and  "droit." 

Agnes  Arnauld  and  the  Community  discussed  the 
matter  of  the  signature,  and  agreed  to  sign  with  an 
explanation.  This  decision  was  not  arrived  at  without 
considerable  hesitation  and  fervent  prayer.  M.  le 
Contes,  who  had  arrived  at  having  a  great  regard  for 
Port  Royal,  implored  Mere  Agnes  and  the  rest  to  sign  : 


['lo  face  p.  302. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


VAIN  ATTEMPTS  AT  EXPLANATION  303 

"  Throw  the  responsibility  on  me,"  he  said,  "as  I  throw 
it  on  the  Pope  who  had  obliged  me  to  do  so." 

After  all,  this  was  a  simple  way  out  of  it — only,  an 
easy  way  of  cutting  the  knot  was  not  the  way  of  Port 
Royal.  If  the  Augustinus  contained  heretical  matters, 
what  was  to  be  said  of  St  Cyran,  the  friend  of 
Jansenius  ?  what  were  they  all  ? 

And  so  they  signed,  with  this  explanation,  on 
28th  November  1661.  Beyond  this  they  dared  not 
go.  As  Sainte  Beuve  says:  "  Plutot  souffrir  mille 
morts  que  de  mentir  une  seule  fois." 

The  explanation  inscribed  in  the  middle  of  the 
documents  which  contained  all  their  signatures  was 
to  this  effect : — 

"We — the  Abbess,  Prioress,  and  nuns  of  Port 
Royal —  ...  in  consideration  of  the  ignorance  in 
which  we  are  concerning  those  things  which  are  beyond 
our  province  as  both  regards  our  sex  and  our^  religious 
profession,  we  feel  that  all  we  can  do  is  to  testify  to  the 
purity  of  our  faith  and  to  declare  willingly  by  our 
signatures  that  ...  we  willingly  agree  to  all  that  His 
Holiness  (Pope  Alexander  VII.)  and  Pope  Innocent 
have  declared^  and  we  reject  every  error  which  they 
have  rejected." 

It  cost  the  Port  Royalists  not  a  little  to  sign  this 
explanation  ;  and  after  it  was  signed  there  were  many 
searchings  of  hearts  and  many  tears.  However,  the 
signatures  were  taken  to  the  Dean,  M.  le  Contes*  who 
said  he  was  satisfied,  but  the  Court  would  not  be. 
'Tell  them  to  sign  simply  without  any  explanation." 
This  demand  was  not  complied  with,  and  the  explana- 
tion was  sent  with  the  signatures. 

The  next  event  was  the  election  of  a  new  Abbess 
for  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  Agnes's  term  of  office  being 
over ;  Agnes  Madeleine  de  St  Ange  de  Ligny  was 
elected.  She  was  the  niece  of  the  Chancellor  Seguier, 
and  had  had,  as  a  young  girl,  some  difficulty  about 
being  allowed  to  remain  at  Port  Royal.  She  had  been 
there  since  1630,  and  was  a  true  child  of  Mere 
Angelique. 


304        THE  DAYS    OF   TEIBULATION 

Many  efforts  were  now  made  by  various  people  to 
induce  the  nuns  to  sign,  and  the  year  1662  opened  on 
this  strife  of  tongues.  Just  then  came  the  wonderful 
cure  of  Catherine  Suzanne  Champagne,  the  daughter 
of  the  painter  Philip  Champagne,  who  recovered  from 
lameness  after  a  novena  of  prayer.  M.  Champagne 
painted  a  picture  commemorating  the  cure,  which  as 
Sainte  Beuve  says,  is  the  only  luxury  of  art  that  the 
Port  Royalists  ever  permitted  themselves.  The  friends 
of  Port  Royal  hoped  much  from  this  cure,  but  it  made 
very  little  impression.  A  final  addition  was  made  to 
the  explanation  of  the  signatures,  to  the  effect  that  as 
the  aforesaid  Popes  had  decided  that  these  errors  are 
found  in  the  five  propositions  "in  the  sense  that  they 
are  in  Jansenius's  teaching,  we  submit  truly  to  this 
decision,  and  we  reject  with  heart  and  speech  the 
said  propositions  and  the  meaning  they  convey  in 
Jansenius." 

This  was  sent  to  Port  Royal,  and  had  been  drawn 
up  by  Pere  Annat,  the  Jesuit.  In  the  meanwhile  the 
Princesse  de  Guemenee  had  been  doing  her  best  to  get 
at  the  King ;  but  finding  it  vain,  she  exclaimed  to  M.  le 
Tellier :  "After  all,  Sir,  the  King  does  everything  he 
wishes  to  do — he  creates  Princes  of  the  Blood,  he 
makes  Archbishops  and  Bishops ;  he  will  also  create 
Martyrs."  The  Princesse  also  represented  to  Anne  of 
Austria  that  to  be  persecuted  and  culumniated  is 
characteristic  of  saints ;  but  the  Queen  changed  the 
conversation. 

Another  misfortune  had  befallen  Port  Royal.  The 
Cardinal  de  Retz  resigned  the  Archbishopric  of  Paris, 
and  M.  de  Marca,  Archbishop  of  Toulouse,  was 
nominated  to  the  See  in  his  place.  Louis  XIV. 
expected  the  new  Archbishop  to  carry  out  the  royal 
wishes  respecting  Port  Royal ;  but  just  after  the  new 
prelate  had  received  the  Bulls  confirming  his  election, 
he  died.  It  is  a  pity  that  the  Port  Royalists  displayed 
so  lively  a  satisfaction  and  were  quite  so  sure  that  his 
death  was  a  judgment  of  God  upon  the  oppressors. 
We  feel  that  we  have  travelled  a  long  way  from  St 


LOUIS  XIV.  AND  THE  PAPAL  COURT  305 

Cyran,  when  we  remember  how  he  received  the  news 
of  Richelieu's  death. 

A  short  respite  now  ensued.  Hardouin  de  Beau- 
mont de  Perefixe,  a  former  tutor  of  the  King,  and  Bishop 
of  Rhodez,  was  nominated  as  successor  to  De  Marca ; 
but  the  relations  between  the  Papal  Court  and  Louis 
XIV.  were  so  strained  that  de  Perefixe  did  not  receive 
the  Bulls  for  nearly  two  years.  The  Pope  at  that  time, 
Alexander  VII.,  had  always  been  opposed  to  France, 
and  had  been  on  bad  terms  with  Mazarin.  Louis  XIV., 
on  assuming  sole  power,  sent  an  Ambassador  Extraor- 
dinary, the  Due  de  Crequi,  to  the  Papal  Court ;  but 
violent  quarrels  broke  out,  chiefly  because  the  Pope's 
relations  and  friends  violated  the  laws  which  in  civilised 
nations  had  always  protected  the  persons  of  ambas- 
sadors. There  were  constant  quarrels  between  the 
French  soldiers  and  the  Pope's  adherents,  and  these 
actually  allowed  the  ambassador  to  be  fired  on  by  the 
Pope's  Guard,  which  was  recruited  from  Corsica. 

Louis  XIV.  was  not  a  king-  whom  it  was  possible 
to  treat  in  this  way.  The  Papal  Nuncio  had  to  leave 
France ;  and  the  Pope  had  in  time  to  make  apologies 
and  to  punish  the  unfortunate  Corsican  Guard  who 
had  been  the  offenders  and  were  made  the  scapegoats, 
and  to  make  various  humiliating  concessions. 

As  Henri  Martin  says  :  "  It  was  centuries  since  the 
Court  of  Rome  had  been  so  deeply  humiliated  by  a 
Catholic  Sovereign.  The  days  of  Boniface  VIII. 
seemed  to  be  renewed,  although  in  a  rather  less  brutal 
form."1 

France  up  to  that  time  had  never  been  in  reality 
ultramontane,  and  while  these  quarrels  were  at  their 
height,  the  Paris  Parlement  took  occasion  to  fulminate 
against  a  thesis  set  forth  at  the  Sorbonne  in  favour 
of  papal  infallibility,  and  the  Sorbonne  hastened  to 
condemn  any  teaching  which  should  attribute  to  the 
Pope  any  temporal  authority  over  kings,  and  any  right 
to  supersede  ancient  canons,  any  supremacy  over  a 
general  council,  any  infallibility. 

1  Histoire  de  France,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  296. 

U 


306        THE  DAYS   OF   TRIBULATION 

One  would  have  thought  that  the  Port  Royalists 
must  indeed  escape,  if  Louis  XIV.  had  had  any  regard 
for  logic.  However,  a  short  breathing  time  was  given 
to  Port  Royal ;  for  the  Jesuits  had  their  own  business 
to  attend  to,  since  they  were  naturally  on  the  papal 
side.  But  that  it  was  only  a  respite  was  clearly  under- 
stood by  the  devoted  Community,  and  they  began  to 
prepare  themselves  for  the  coming  persecution.  Agnes 
drew  up  some  instructions  and  rules  for  the  time,  which 
were  fully  approved  by  Antoine  Arnauld. 

Racine,  in  his  history  of  Port  Royal,  which  only 
extends  up  to  the  peace  of  the  Church,  1669,  writes 
that  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal  had  at  the  beginning 
no  knowledge  of  controversy.  Their  spiritual  advisers 
never  talked  to  them  about  such  things,  and  only 
taught  them  what  was  necessary  for  their  souls'  salva- 
tion. But,  on  the  other  hand,  they  had  been  thoroughly 
taught  the  duties  of  their  profession,  and  the  precepts 
of  the  Gospel. 

Their  minds  were  steeped  in  the  great  principles 
laid  down  by  St  Paul  and  St  Augustine  ;  — for  instance, 
that  it  is  never  right  to  sin  wilfully,  whatever  occasions 
may  arise ;  that  it  is  better  to  bear  the  greatest  sufferings  ; 
that  it  is  better  to  die  than  to  utter  a  trifling  falsehood  ; 
that  as  God  and  Truth  are  one,  the  truth  cannot  be 
wounded  apart  from  God  ;  that  it  is  impossible  to  make 
a  statement  about  a  fact  of  which  one  knows  nothing ; 
and  that  to  say  one  believes  what  one  does  not 
believe  is  a  horrible  crime  in  the  sight  of  God  and 
man. 

And,  above  all,  the  nuns  had  been  inspired  with 
an  extreme  horror  of  mental  reservations,  and  the  clever 
inventions  of  modern  casuistry,  the  object  of  these  being 
to  palliate  falsehood  and  to  elude  truth.  And  this  being 
so,  we  can  easily  conceive  the  repugnance  which  these 
nuns  felt  about  signing  the  Formulary.  They  had 
been  obliged  to  learn  something  of  the  controversy 
which  had  produced  so  great  an  excitement  in  the 
Church.  .  .  .  They  had  learned  that  two  Popes,  at  the 
request  of  the  Jesuits  and  of  several  Bishops,  had 


CATHOLIC,  NOT  ULTRAMONTANE     307 

condemned  five  abominable  propositions  which,  they 
said,  had  been  taken  from  Jansenius. 

Everyone  agreed  that  these  propositions  were  here- 
tical, but  the  greater  number  of  Theologians,  distin- 
guished alike  for  piety  and  learning,  among  whom  were 
the  nuns'  own  directors,  held  that  these  propositions 
were  not  in  the  Augustinus  of  Jansenius. 

So  there  was  some  room  for  doubt  as  to  these  pro- 
positions being  in  the  book  at  all — the  book,  moreover, 
of  a  Bishop  who  had  died  in  odour  of  sanctity,  and  who, 
in  that  very  book,  seemed  almost  excessive  in  his  submis- 
sion to  the  Holy  See.  Thus,  whether  the  nuns  were 
wrong  or  not,  could  they  sign  the  Formulary  with  a 
clear  conscience?  Would  it  not  have  been  to  protest 
the  exact  opposite  of  what  they  believed  ? 

And  if  they  were  told  that  they  ought  to  trust  to  the 
decisions  of  two  Popes,  they  had  learned  that  neither 
Pope  nor  Council  is  infallible  as  to  facts  which  do  not 
belong  to  revelation. 

Racine  goes  on  to  say  that  the  Jesuits'  thesis  of  the 
infallibility  of  the  Pope  is  a  new  and  dangerous  heresy, 
and  not  only  a  heresy,  but  a  manifest  and  glaring  im- 
piety ;  for  it  makes  a  created  being  equal  to  God,  and 
it  would  give  to  the  word  of  a  man  that  devotion  which 
can  only  be  given  to  the  Eternal  Word. 

This  is  clear  enough :  the  Port  Royalists  were  not 
Protestants.  They  were  loyal  Catholics  ;  but  the  Ultra- 
montanism  of  the  Jesuits  was  quite  new  to  them. 


CHAPTER  XV 

PERSECUTION — M&RE  ANGfiLIQUE  DE   ST  JEAN   (1663-1669) 

A  VIGOROUS  but  quite  fruitless  effort  was  made  just  at 
this  time  to  bring-  about  peace.  One  of  the  best  of 
Port  Royal's  friends,  the  Bishop  of  Comminges,  received 
a  communication  from  the  Professor  of  Theology  at 
Toulouse,  which  led  to  a  meeting  between  the  two  in 
September.  They  proposed  that  the  two  opposing 
parties  should  explain  their  views,  and  should  try  to 
bring"  them  into  accordance  with  the  teaching  of  the 
Church,  that  they  should  recognise  the  fact  that  there 
were  two  schools  of  thought  in  the  Church,  and  persuade 
the  Pope  to  do  so,  and  beg  his  blessing  on  both. 

The  King1  consented  that  M.  Arnauld,  M.  Singlin, 
and  others  should  come  to  Paris,  but  Antoine  Arnauld 
was  intractable.  Nothing-  would  induce  him  to  confer 
personally  with  a  Jesuit ;  he  would  do  nothing  but 
write,  and  one  can  only  feel  the  bitterest  disappointment 
at  the  obstinacy,  the  want  of  ability  to  see  anybody's 
point  but  his  own,  which  characterised  Antoine  Arnauld 
and  which  wrecked  an  attempt  which  might  possibly 
have  succeeded,  and  which  would  have  saved,  if  it  had 
done  nothing  else,  untold  suffering,  mental  and  physical, 
to  innocent  women. 

The  father  of  the  illustrious  M.  de  Tillemont,  who 
was  deeply  attached  to  Port  Royal,  wrote  to  Arnauld : 
''You  will  stand  condemned  before  God  and  man,  if 
you  will  not  believe  a  prelate  so  clear-headed,  so 
virtuous,  so  far  above  all  suspicion  as  is  M.  de  Com- 
minges,"  and  much  more.  No  doubt  Arnauld  followed 
his  conscience ;  but  his  letters  to  M.  de  Comminges  are 


ATTEMPTS  TO  MAKE  PEACE        309 

almost  irritating-  in  their  proud  humility  and  their  calm 
assurance  of  being-  in  the  right. 

In  March  1663,  he  writes  to  M.  Singlin  that  he  has 
retired  into  hiding-,  and  that  he  wishes  to  be  responsible 
only  for  himself.  He  thought  too  much  of  himself,  too 
little  of  the  whole  Household  of  Faith.  In  vain  did  his 
brother  Henri,  Bishop  of  Angers,  write  and  point  out 
what  was  meant  by  submission,  and  the  great  import- 
ance of  peace.  Arnauld  wrote  endless  letters  and 
analyses  of  the  disputed  points. 

Possibly  no  understanding  could  have  been  arrived 
at ;  but  how  sad  that  non  possumus  was  Arnauld's 
ultimatum.  M.  d'Andilly  was  made  quite  ill,  and  his 
son,  M.  de  Pomponne,  declared  that  the  affair  would 
kill  his  father.  M.  d'Andilly  wrote  to  his  recalcitrant 
brother,  his  junior  by  so  many  years,  that  whenever  the 
proposed  reconciliation  seemed  at  all  likely  to  come 
about,  he  (Arnauld)  was  sad,  but  when  it  was  evidently 
in  a  bad  way  he  grew  cheerful.  We  cannot  but  agree 
with  M.  Sainte  Beuve  as  to  the  impatience  and  weari- 
ness which  Arnauld's  dogged  obstinacy  caused  all  plain 
men.  He  himself,  to  do  him  justice,  suffered  consider- 
ably ;  but  we  cannot  acquit  him. 

M.  de  Comminges  realised  that  without  Arnauld  the 
reconciliation  was  un  coup  manqud.  All  that  could 
be  done  was  to  send  a  letter  to  Rome  fully  explaining 
the  opinions  of  the  leading  Port  Royalists  on  the 
condemned  proposition.  This  simply  led  to  a  papal 
letter  addressed  to  all  the  French  Bishops  condemning- 
Jansenius,  and  that,  of  course,  led  to  a  fulmination  on 
Arnauld's  part,  in  which  he,  as  Sainte  Beuve  says, 
appears  "a  cheval  sur  la  conscience."  The  whole 
attempt  failed,  and  the  good  Bishop  had  sense  enough 
to  abstain  from  writing". 

It  was  just  about  this  time  that  Pascal  died,  and  in 

the  midst  of  her  own  fears  Agnes  writes  to  Mme.  Perier  : 

'You  are  left  alone,  my  dear  sister,  to  gather  up  all 

that  has  been  bequeathed  by  a  brother  and  sister  who 

were  rich  in  the  riches  given  by  God." 

Agnes  writes  to  her  brother  the  Bishop  of  Angers  : — 


310  PERSECUTION 

"It  seems  to  me  that  if  I  had  died  two  years 
ago,  I  should  have  lost  a  great  deal ;  all  that  has 
happened  has  made  me  realise  how  valueless  the 
Religious  Life  is,  if  it  is  without  trials  ;  we  needed  the 
guidance  God  has  given  us  ;  it  is  needful  to  refine  gold 
by  fire,  so  that  it  may  be  purified  from  all  alloy."  She 
seems  in  her  deeply  spiritual  and  charitable  mind  to  find 
comfort  in  M.  Bail,  who  on  St  Andrew's  day  had 
preached  a  sermon  on  being  crucified  with  Christ. 

When  the  efforts  of  M.  de  Comminges  entirely  failed, 
she  writes:  "This  so  much  talked  of  compromise  has 
only  made  things  more  difficult  than  they  were  before." 

In  1664  the  new  Archbishop  at  last  received  the 
Bulls,  and  Port  Royal  decided  to  send  him  a  courteous 
message  of  congratulation.  They  sent  as  their  mes- 
senger our  old  friend  Claude  Lancelot,  who  gives  us  a 
full  account  of  his  embassy.  He  began  with  the  usual 
polite  congratulations,  and  went  on  to  say  that  the  Com- 
munity much  hoped  for  the  new  Archbishop's  protection. 
He  explains  that  he  (Lancelot)  did  not  live  at  Port 
Royal,  but  that  he  was  much  attached  to  the  Com- 
munity. The  Archbishop,  on  his  side,  explained  that 
the  King  was  persuaded  that  a  new  heresy  had  arisen 
and  he  was  fully  resolved  to  crush  it — "Represent  to 
them,"  went  on  the  Archbishop,  "  that  they  really  ought 
to  find  some  way  to  satisfy  the  King ;  two  Popes  have 
pronounced,  Bishops  have  received  their  judgment,  the 
Faculty  of  Theology  has  admitted  it ;  doctors,  religious, 
have  signed ;  there  is  no  sense  in  a  single  convent  of 
nuns  laying  down  the  law  to  the  others  and  appearing 
more  exact,  more  intelligent  than  Popes,  Doctors, 
Bishops,  Priests," — etc.,  etc. 

Lancelot  tried  to  put  in  a  word  here  and  there,  and 
seems  to  have  arrived  at  the  perception,  not  peculiar  to 
himself,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  discuss  matters  with  great 
people,  who  can  say  anything  they  please,  whereas  their 
opponents  have  little  or  no  freedom  of  speech.  How- 
ever, when  the  Archbishop,  a  person  of  no  great 
intelligence  or  learning,  paused,  Lancelot  answered 
gently  that  there  could  be  no  suspicion  of  heresy,  it  was 


THE  NEW  AKCHBISHOP  311 

only  a  question  of  facts ;  could  not  the  King-  be  per- 
suaded that  no  new  heresy  had  arisen  in  France,  and 
was  it  not  a  pardonable  fault  in  "  the  poor  Port  Royalists 
to  have  extremely  tender  consciences  ? "  to  which  M.  de 
Perefixe  replied  (and  no  doubt  there  is  something-  to  be 
said  for  his  point  of  view)  that  tenderness  of  conscience 
should  in  this  case  be  dubbed  stubbornness.  The  con- 
versation lasted  a  long-  time.  Lancelot  had  plenty  to  say, 
but  the  Archbishop  held  to  his  point ; — the  unfortunate 
book  had  been  pronounced  to  contain  the  five  heresies. 
The  conversation  ended  by  the  Archbishop  saying : 
"Tell  them  I  value  their  goodness,  I  would  shed  my 
blood  to  get  them  out  of  this  terrible  strait." 

Lancelot  retired  and,  as  it  were,  threw  down  the 
gage  of  battle  a  entrance  to  the  Archbishop's  private 
chaplain:  "You  have  only  to  say  to  the  Archbishop 
that  as  for  signing — cela  et  la  mort — c'est  la  meme 
chose." 

And  now  we  enter  on  this  sad  chapter.  The  Arch- 
bishop was  not  fitted  by  ability,  or  learning,  or  character, 
to  deal  with  this  most  difficult  problem  ;  he  was  derided 
by  a  number  of  exceedingly  clever  people,  who  spared  him 
nothing.  He  was  very  kind,  he  longed  to  be  a  father 
in  God,  and  he  was  assailed  on  all  sides  by  such 
people  as  Mme.  de  Longueville  and  M.  de  Sainte 
Marthe.  It  was  a  sad  and  perplexing  business.1 

M.  de  Sainte  Marthe's  letter  is  heartrending ;  he 
pleads  that  tolerance  is  shown  to  those  who  dispense 
men  from  obedience  to  God,  and  he  describes  the 
Jesuits'  way  of  making  things  easy  as  set  forth  by  the 
Provincial  Letters,  and  pleads  for  some  equal  justice. 
Some  of  his  phrases  have  a  very  modern  ring  about 
them,  and  might  seem  to  be  the  utterances  of  an 
English  priest  asking  for  a  little  tolerance  for  some  of 
his  brethren  who  had  offended  by  the  use  of  some  piece 
of  unwonted  ceremonial,  or  the  teaching  of  some 
forgotten  doctrine. 

He  goes  on  to  say  that  if  the  Archbishop  does 

1  For  a  particularly  ridiculous  anecdote  of  Archbisop  Perefixe,  see 
Sainte  Beuve,  Port  Royal^  vol.  iv.,  p.  180. 


312  PERSECUTION 

subdue  the  poor  nuns — "the  wounds  you  inflict  on 
yourself  will  be  no  less  mortal  than  is  the  wound  which 
they  receive  from  your  hand.  Judge  them,  Monseigneur, 
but  with  a  righteous  judgment  which  may  prepare  them 
for  the  judgment  of  the  Sovereign  Judge.  Come,  if  it 
please  you  to  correct  their  faults,  strengthen  their 
weakness,  mortify  them  to  that  extent  which  you  deem 
suitable  for  their  welfare;  treat  their  faults  with  that 
degree  of  severity  which  seems  needful.  They  will  be 
very  thankful  to  you ;  they  will  always  think  that  your 
goodness  exceeds  all  severity  of  judgment,  provided 
that  you  are  willing  to  recognise  them  as  your 
daughters,  and  that  you  will  permit  them  not  to  take 
part  in  controversies  which  are  unsuitable  to  their 
condition  and  are  only  interruptions  to  that  silence  in 
which  they  would  work  out  their  salvation." 

The  Archbishop  began  by  publishing  a  mandate  in 
which  he  laid  down  a  distinction  between  Divine  Faith 
and  what  he  called  human  faith,  and  said  that  it  was 
through  human  faith  that  the  faithful  were  to  believe 
"le  fait."  Dogmas  of  the  Faith  were  to  be  believed  by 
Divine  Faith.  These  were  not  happy  terms,  and 
Nicole,  Antoine  Arnauld's  faithful  friend  and  com- 
panion, set  to  work  at  once  to  demolish  this  new  system 
of  "foi  humaine."  He  did  this  cleverly;  but  we  feel 
that  Sainte  Beuve's  criticism  is  perfectly  just,  that 
Nicole  forgot  he  was  a  member  of  a  Church  which  is  a 
hierarchy.  The  Archbishop's  remark  cited  by  Sainte 
Beuve  is  not  unjust — "  S'ils  [the  Port  Royalists] 
pouvaient  etre  seulement  six  mois  sans  ecrire !  " 

On  the  gth  of  June,  the  Archbishop  arrived  at  Port 
Royal  at  half-past  ten  in  the  morning,  and  after  a 
discourse  on  the  duty  of  obedience,  and  on  the  fact  that 
Jansenius's  book  had  been  condemned  by  the  Pope,  he 
went  on  to  say  that  their  refusal  to  sign  the  Formulary 
was  due  to  the  opinions  of  certain  people  whose  dicta 
ought  never  to  be  set  in  opposition  to  those  of  the 
Church  and  of  their  Superiors.  He  wished  to  help 
them,  and  would  regard  their  interview  with  him  as 
wholly  confidential. 


THE  ARCHBISHOP'S   VISITATION     313 

The  next  day,  after  the  Mass  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he 
began  the  private  examinations,  and  at  once  the  poor 
prelate  lost  his  temper.  After  some  " heckling"  he 
burst  out  to  the  first  Sister  :  "  You  are  more  enlightened 
— wiser  people,  than  the  Pope,  than  your  Archbishop, 
than  all  Religious  Orders,  etc.,  etc."  Finally,  when 
Marguerite  de  St  Gertrude  gasped  out  her  final  refusal, 
he  cried  out:  "Go  away,  go  out  of  this  place;  there's 
no  reason  in  you,"  and  she  went  away;  but  after  the 
next  interview,  she  returned  to  ask  the  Episcopal 
blessing  and  to  beg  pardon  for  having  displeased  the 
Archbishop.  He  was  quite  kind,  and  begged  her  to 
pray  for  the  light  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  also  begged 
her  to  forgive  him  for  anything  he  had  said  to  vex  her. 

Angelique  de  St  Jean — M.  d'Andilly's  daughter — 
was  quite  capable  of  sustaining  her  part.  She  had  her 
aunt's,  the  first  Angelique's,  strength  of  mind,  and  she 
was  far  more  inclined  for  controversy.  She  had  been 
formed  to  a  considerable  extent  by  her  uncle,  Antoine 
Arnauld,  who  held  her  in  great  respect ;  she  was  also 
extremely  shrewd. 

The  Archbishop  and  Angelique  argued  at  great 
length,  and  Angelique  got  much  the  best  of  the  discus- 
sion. Her  reply  to  a  remark  of  his,  that  to  sign  the 
Formulary  was  an  opportunity  for  the  Community  to 
extricate  themselves  from  their  unpleasant  position, 
was  :  "  I  think,  Monseigneur,  that  it  is  not  so  easy  to 
extricate  ourselves  from  the  persecution  to  which  we 
have  been  exposed  for  the  last  twenty  years.  The 
signature  is  not  the  beginning  of  it,  and  I  think  it  will 
certainly  not  be  the  end.  I  confess  to  you  that  simply 
from  our  own  experience,  it  will  be  difficult  for  us  to 
believe  that  when  we  are  asked  for  a  simple  token  of 
obedience,  there  is  not  also  a  hidden  cause  for  the  way 
in  which  we  are  now  treated."  She  goes  on  to  describe 
the  vicissitudes  that  had  befallen  Port  Royal  since  the 
arrest  of  St  Cyran,  to  which  the  Archbishop  hastily 
interposed  an  account  of  what  Richelieu,  in  whose 
service  he  (the  Archbishop)  then  was,  had  said  to  him  : 
"  He  called  me  that  day  and  said,  '  Beaumont,  I  have 


314  PERSECUTION 

done  something  to-day  which  will  cause  a  great  outcry 
against  me  ;  I  have  had  1'Abbe  de  St  Cyran  arrested 
by  order  of  the  King.' '  The  Cardinal  then  proceeded 
to  say  that  St  Cyran  had  great  gifts,  but  he  also  had 
opinions  of  his  own,  which  would  probably  cause 
disturbances  in  the  Church,  and  that  anything  which 
caused  disturbances  in  the  Church  would  also  cause 
disturbance  in  the  State.  Poor  Angelique  was  much 
vexed  with  herself  for  having  said  nothing  in  reply  to 
all  that  was  said  about  M.  de  St  Cyran  ;  the  conversa- 
tion terminated  with  a  great  show  of  politeness  and 
civility  on  the  side  of  the  Archbishop,  and  a  burst  of 
sorrow  from  Angelique. 

The  next  to  appear  was  Christine  Briquet,  a  most 
intelligent  and  clever  little  person.  The  Archbishop 
wasted  little  time  on  preliminaries  with  her,  but  opened 
fire  on  the  fatal  propositions,  and  the  whole  con- 
troversy, and  enquired  what  were  Christine's  senti- 
ments. 

She  replied  in  terms  of  meekness  and  humility 
which  irritated  the  Archbishop,  perhaps  not  un- 
naturally. 

He  questioned  her  as  to  who  had  inspired  her  with 
the  resolution  not  to  sign,  and  when  he  could  get  nothing 
out  of  her  but  that  when  she  had  prayed  no  other 
resolution  but  that  of  refusing  to  sign  would  present 
itself,  either  to  her  or  to  any  other  Sister  in  like  case, 
he  said  :  ''What,  after  having  prayed  in  that  way,  you 
made  up  your  minds  by  yourselves  not  to  sign?  For 
it  must  be  one  of  two  things,  either  you  have  taken 
counsel  together,  or  you  have  asked  it  from  some  clever 
person  ;  if  you  took  the  opinion  of  a  learned  and  capable 
man,  you  would  perhaps  not  have  acted  so  badly ;  but 
if  you  made  up  your  minds  by  yourselves  not  to  do 
something  which  your  Superiors  order  you  to  do, 
allow  me  to  tell  you  that  you  are  very  presumptuous, 
to  think  yourselves  more  capable  of  judging  a  matter 
which  you  yourselves  confess  you  do  not  comprehend  " 
— and  this  criticism  is  not  really  very  unjust. 

Christine  replied  that  she  had  asked  advice  about 


CHRISTINE  BKIQUET  315 

the  signature.  And  the  Archbishop  replied  to  her  with 
much  benevolence  and  proceeded  to  set  forth  at  length 
the  whole  affair  from  his  point  of  view.  He  reminded 
her  as  he  had  done  others,  that  Jansenius  submitted  his 
book  to  the  Papal  judgment.  The  Pope  had  caused 
the  book  to  be  examined ;  it  was  condemned,  and  the 
whole  Church  had  accepted  this  condemnation  except- 
ing- a  handful  of  people.  Christine  quoted  various 
Bishops  and  the  redoubtable  Antoine  Arnauld,  and 
reminded  the  Archbishop  of  the  miracle  of  the  Holy 
Thorn,  and  of  the  more  recent  mark  of  Divine  favour 
in  the  person  of  the  daughter  of  M.  Champagne ;  she 
also  told  him  of  a  Sister  who  saw  visions,  and  the 
Archbishop  begged  her  to  use  commonsense  ;  however, 
he  listened  to  her  account  of  a  dream,  which  was  not 
complimentary  to  the  Jesuits,  and  then  begged  her  to 
listen  to  him.  He  was  not  a  Jesuit,  nor  in  any  way  in 
sympathy  with  the  Jesuits  ;  he  even  offered  to  bring  her 
the  Augustinus  and  explain  it  to  her,  but  she  flatly  and 
perhaps  wisely  refused. 

They  continued  their  discussion  until  at  last  the 
Archbishop  told  Christine  that  the  Community  prayed 
in  a  spirit  of  obstinacy,  and  warned  her  as  to  what 
would  probably  happen  if  the  nuns  refused  the  signature, 
adding :  "  I  would  shed  my  blood  to  get  you  out  of  the 
plight  you  are  in,  and  I  am  grieved  to  my  heart  that  I 
cannot  do  it."  So  ended  Christine  Briquet's  interview. 

The  Archbishop's  visitation  was  concluded  on  1 3th 
July.  He  assembled  the  Community  and  lectured 
them  with  considerable  severity.  His  speech  is  far 
too  long  to  quote,  but  amongst  other  things  he  said : 
'You  prefer  the  private  opinions  of  a  small  handful  of 
people  to  the  opinions  of  the  Pope  and  of  your  Arch- 
bishop. These  people  have  advised  you  and  made  you 
promise  to  support  their  side.  .  .  .  You  will  not  con- 
vince me  that  you  have  not  at  least  some  of  their 
writings ;  for  I  notice  that  the  answers  which  several 
of  you  have  given  me  are  just  the  same  thing  which 
one  finds  in  their  works,"  and  so  on.  He  then  con- 
cluded by  giving  them  absolution  and  by  enjoining 


316  PERSECUTION 

them  to  say  daily  the  Veni  Creator  and  the  Collect  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  They  were  also  to  receive  a  priest 
sent  by  him,  as  their  confessor,  M.  Chamillard. 

There  arose  a  rather  unseemly  dispute  between  the 
Mother  and  the  Archbishop,  who  lost  his  temper  and 
descended  to  scolding  and  rating.  He  sat  down  in  his 
chair  and  a  long  conversation  ensued,  during  which 
the  Archbishop  and  the  Community  argued  and  his 
attendant  Chaplain  put  in  a  word  now  and  then.  The 
whole  scene  was  undignified,  but  the  impression  left  on 
one's  mind  by  it  is  not  wholly  unfavourable  to  the 
Archbishop.  He  was  not  a  very  clever  or  a  very 
saintly  person,  but  neither  was  he  cruel  or  unspiritual, 
or  at  all  desirous  to  persecute  the  poor  nuns,  who,  some 
of  them  at  least,  were  more  than  a  match  for  him.  He 
entirely  lacked  dignity  and  weight  and  the  power  of 
persuasion  which  often  accompanies  a  true  saint,  and 
is  as  often  lacking  to  him  who  has  attained  but  a 
respectable  mediocrity  in  the  School  of  Christ. 

The  hour  had  come  and  everyone  prepared  for  the 
battle.  M.  d'Andilly  wrote  to  his  daughter  Angelique 
de  St  Jean  a  letter,  marking  at  once  the  courage  of  an 
Arnauld  and  the  humility  of  the  Port  Royalist.  He 
ends  his  letter  : — 

"  I  give  to  you,  and  to  all  your  sisters,  with  all  my 
heart  (although  I  am  a  very  great  sinner)  every 
blessing  a  father  can  give  to  children  whom  he  entirely 
loves,  and  of  whom  he  thinks  it  almost  too  blessed  to 
be  the  father,  when  he  sees  in  what  way  it  has  pleased 
God  to  receive  them.  Perhaps  we  may  never  meet 
again  in  this  life,  but  what  is  this  life?  How  can  a 
Christian  consider  it  ? — when  it  is  a  question  of  faith- 
fulness to  God,  so  that  we  may  hope  for  the  eternal 
blessedness  of  that  other  life,  in  which  He  will  be 
Himself  our  life.  I  give  you  back  to  Him,  my  dearest 
child,  I  put  back  into  His  hands  the  present  He  made 
me  when  you  came  into  the  world." 

D'Andilly  never  appears  to  greater  advantage  than 
in  this  hour  of  persecution  and  sorrow.  He  had  been 
a  man  of  the  world,  a  royal  favourite,  a  person  of 


CONCEPTIONS  OF  CHURCH  AUTHORITY  317 

consideration  in  the  great  world.  He  had  his  own 
weaknesses ;  but  he  had  always  put  God's  service  first, 
and  now  he  was  undaunted  and  ready  to  suffer  gladly. 

The  Archbishop  was  quite  unable,  had  he  wished 
to  do  so,  to  mitigate  any  severity  to  the  Community. 
The  Queen  herself  (Anne  of  Austria),  so  it  is  said,  not 
infrequently  reminded  him :  "  M.  de  Paris,  recollect 
on  what  condition  you  received  the  Archbishopric  of 
Paris ;  you  have  been  appointed ;  it  remains  to  be  seen 
how  you  comport  yourself." 

The  friends  of  Port  Royal,  and  they  were  not  a  few, 
did  their  best  during  the  next  few  weeks,  especially  the 
great  ladies,  Mme.  de  Longueville,  Mme.  de  Sable  and 
others.  M.  Chamillard  entered  on  his  office  as  con- 
fessor. Christine  Briquet  wrote  out  an  account  of  what 
he  said  to  her  concerning  the  signature  after  she  had 
finished  her  confession — a  proceeding  which  seems  a 
little  irregular.  She  wrote  out  also  a  long  conversation 
she  had  with  him  after  he  had  given  her  absolution,  and, 
clever  as  she  is,  there  is  an  unpleasant  impression  left 
on  one.  This  young  girl,  so  argumentative,  so  orthodox, 
so  proudly  humble,  seems  quite  another  species  of 
"religieuse"  than  Jacqueline  Pascal,  and,  above  all, 
different  from  Mere  Ange"lique. 

It  is  very  sad  ;  perhaps  all  were  to  blame.  Certainly 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  Church  authority,  and  greatly 
as  the  Anglican  principle  is  vilified  and  set  at  nought 
by  our  brethren  of  the  Roman  Communion,  and  little 
understood  as  it  appears  to  be  by  many  of  the  Church 
of  England,  it  is  perhaps  questionable  whether  our 
attitude  will  not  be  justified  at  the  bar  of  history, 
and  that  it  may  be,  in  His  Mercy,  by  the  Great  Head 
of  the  Church.  Those  among  us,  who  really  represent 
the  mind  of  the  Church,  feel  that  it  is  her  work  rather 
4 'to  promote  principles  than  to  rely  on  precise  and 
detailed  guidance." 1  The  Creeds  do  not  deny  authority, 
but,  in  the  words  of  Bishop  Gore,  they  hold  that 
authority  is  not  the  same  thing  as  absolutism,  which 
is  only  an  exaggerated  and  peculiar  form  of  it. 

1  Dean  Strong,  Authority  in  the  Church. 


318  PERSECUTION 

'True  authority  does  not  issue  edicts  to  suppress 
men's  personal  judgment  or  render  its  action  unneces- 
sary, but  it  is  like  the  authority  of  a  parent,  which 
invigorates  and  encourages,  even  while  it  restrains 
and  guides  the  growth  of  our  own  individuality."  And 
the  Bishop  goes  on  to  quote  Law's  First  Letter 
to  the  Bishop  of  Bangor,  in  which  he  says  :  "  must  there 
be  such  a  thing  as  authority  that  is  not  absolute, 
or  that  does  not  require  a  blind  implicit  obedience."  "  I 
must  protest"  Bishop  Gore  continues,  "that  the 
authority  of  the  Church  is,  as  we  Anglicans  understand 
it,  a  most  real  guidance  of  our  spirit  and  intellect,  to 
which,  by  God's  Mercy,  we  love  to  submit  ourselves. 
Submission  to  that  authority  of  the  Church  is  the  merg- 
ing of  our  mere  individualism  in  the  whole  historic  life  of 
the  great  Christian  Brotherhood,  it  is  making  ourselves 
at  one  with  the  one  religion  in  its  most  permanent  and 
least  merely  local  form.  It  is  surrendering  our  individu- 
ality only  to  empty  it  of  its  narrowness.  One  with  the 
Christianity  of  history,  the  Christianity  of  Creeds  and 
Councils,  we  enter  into  the  heritage  of  her  dogmas  and 
of  something  as  great  as  her  greatest  dogmas,  the 
whole  joy  of  her  Sacraments,  the  security  of  her 
Ministry,  the  Communion  of  her  Saints,  the  fellowship 
of  her  Spirit.  We  can  read  her  Great  Fathers  and 
find  ourselves  one  with  them  in  all  matters  of  faith 
over  the  lapse  of  ages." l 

This  broad  and  admirable  temper  is,  of  course, 
the  exact  antithesis  to  ultramontanism.  And  the 
Port  Royalists  undoubtedly  were  in  opposition  to  that 
spirit,  the  inheritance  bequeathed  by  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  all  that  the  growth  of  the  Papacy  has  involved. 
To  crush  is  always  easier  than  to  persuade,  and  it  is 
the  human  way,  the  human  spirit. 

We  need  not  be  surprised  that  a  theologian  of  the 
calibre  of  Antoine  Arnauld  felt  that  he  and  his  cause 
had  had  no  hearing  worth  the  name,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  think  that  the  belief  about  grace  can  ever  be  held  in 
exactly  the  same  way  by  all.  It  is,  humanly  speaking, 

1  Roman  Catholic  Claims,  pp.  51-52. 


THE  PORT  EOYAL  FORMULARY   319 

one  of  the  greatest  barriers  to  unity  that  the  ultramon- 
tane theory  of  Churchmanship  has  so  completely  domin- 
ated the  Western  Church,  to  such  an  extent,  indeed,  that 
in  most  people's  minds  it  seems  identical  with  and  bound 
up  with  Catholicism.  That  the  ultramontane  view  was 
not  absolutely  dominant  in  the  French  Church  of  the 
seventeenth  century  is  evident  from  the  Port  Royal 
attitude. 

M.  Chamillard  came  one  day  in  July  and  entreated 
the  Sisters  to  sign  this  Formulary  :  "  I  submit  myself  to 
the  two  Constitutions  of  Popes  Innocent  X.  and 
Alexander  VII."  He  made  a  long  speech,  in  which  he 
said  everything-  he  could  devise  to  quiet  the  consciences 
of  the  poor  nuns  ;  he  was  accompanied  by  another 
priest,  one  Pere  Esprit,  who  generally  contrived  to  say 
the  wrong  thing,  and  the  interview  came  to  nothing-. 
The  Community  prepared  another  Formulary  and  sent 
it  to  the  Archbishop  by  the  hands  of  M.  Champagne, 
the  painter.  It  ran  thus:  "We,  the  undersigned, 
profess  entire  submission  to,  and  belief  in,  the  faith ; 
and  on  the  *  fact '  (fait),  as  we  can  have  no  satisfactory 
knowledge  about  it,  we  can  form  no  judgment,  but  we 
beg  to  remain  in  that  respect  and  silence  which  are 
suitable  to  our  condition  and  state." 

This  document  was  of  course  useless ;  both  M. 
Champagne  and  the  Archbishop  were  plunged  in 
misery ;  yet  the  Community  was  to  be  sacrificed,  not 
really  to  the  Pope,  not  to  any  real  attack  by  any  sober 
Churchmen,  but  to  the  dislike  of  Louis  XIV.  for  any 
independent  thought,  and  to  the  jealousy  of  another 
religious  Order. 

The  Archbishop  fell  ill,  and  Port  Royal  prayed 
fervently  for  his  recovery,  and  about  the  same  time 
drew  up  the  first  of  the  many  protests  which  were  to 
emanate  from  them.  It  is  wearisome  to  read,  to  say 
nothing  else ;  the  waste  of  time,  the  waste  of  energy, 
the  waste  of  valuable  material,  make  one  at  once 
indignant  and  sad. 

The  Archbishop,  as  soon  as  he  possibly  could,  left 
his  bed,  and  came  "himself  to  bring  us  news  of  his 


320  PERSECUTION 

health."  He  pronounced  a  short  discourse,  and  then 
saw  the  whole  Community  one  by  one.  The  Sisters, 
most  of  them,  hung  round  Mere  Agnes  Arnauld  in  her 
room. 

She  opened  her  New  Testament,  and  her  eyes  fell  on 
the  sad  words  :  "This  is  your  hour,  and  the  power  of 
darkness."  Then  the  little  band  read  part  of  the 
Passion  together,  and  said  some  prayers  to  our  Lord, 
as  they  waited  on  to  see  what  the  Archbishop  would  do. 
The  Mother  went  to  ask  permission  to  say  Vespers,  or 
did  he  wish  to  speak  to  the  Community  ?  He  told  her  to 
say  that  they  could  recite  Vespers,  as  he  did  not  wish  to 
speak  to  them  en  masse,  but  suddenly  changed  his  mind 
and  sent  for  the  whole  body  of  Sisters.  Then  in  tones 
of  the  utmost  severity,  he  began  : — 

"  If  ever  anyone  had  reason  to  be  practically  broken- 
hearted, that  man  is  myself.  I  find  you  obstinate, 
rebellious,  disobedient ;  I  pronounce  you  unfit " — there 
was  a  pause—  "unfit  to  participation  the  Sacraments, 
and  I  forbid  you  to  approach  them." 

After  this  speech,  which  we  have  shortened,  he 
turned  his  back  on  the  unfortunate  Sisters,  and  pre- 
pared to  leave.  Then  followed  a  terrible  scene.  The 
Archbishop  seeing  that  various  people  had  assembled 
in  the  courtyard,  the  Princesse  de  Guemene"e  among 
others,  retreated  into  a  private  room,  from  which  he 
emerged  to  order  the  Sisters  to  speak  to  no  one. 

The  poor  Mother  tried  to  speak  to  him,  but  he  cut 
her  short :  "Hold  your  tongue,  you  are  nothing  but  a 
little  piece  of  obstinacy  and  pride,  with  no  intelligence, 
and  you  meddle  with  things  of  which  you  understand 
not  an  atom ;  you  are  only  a  little  minx,  a  little  fool,  a 
little  dunce,  you  don't  know  what  you  want  to  say  ;  one 
need  only  look  at  your  face  to  recognise  you  ;  one  sees  it 
in  your  face." 

The  Sisters  crowded  round  him,  trying  to  move  him, 
and  one  of  them  said  :  "  In  Heaven  we  shall  find  a  Judge 
who  will  judge  us  rightly."  "Yes,  yes,"  replied  the 
much  worried  and  entirely  exasperated  prelate,  "when 


PEOTESTS   AND   PEAYEES  321 

we  get  there,  we  shall  see  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  it 
all." 

'You  know  our  innocence,"  one  or  two  said. 
"Yes,  I  know,"  replied  their  pastor,  "you  are  as  pure 
as  angels,  and  as  proud  as  Lucifer ;  you  think  that  you 
yourselves  are  more  fit  to  decide  about  this  command  of 
mine,  than  all  the  directors  and  superiors  in  the  world." 
Then  the  Princesse  de  Guemenee  met  the  incensed 
Archbishop  in  the  courtyard,  and  he  repeated  to  her  the 
phrase  so  often  employed  to  describe  the  Port  Royalists 
— "Purity  of  angels — pride  of  Lucifer."    At  any  rate, 
the  Archbishop  did  not  descend  to  the  level  of  those  who 
had  accused  the  Community  of  neglect  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, or  who  had  preached  to  them  about  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah,  or  the  excommunicated  man  of  St  Paul's 
first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians. 

He  departed.     The  Community,  borne  up  by  that 
religious  exultation,  which  possesses  the  soul  in  the  first 
hours  of  suffering,  proceeded  to  recite  the  Miserere, 
several  other   Psalms  and  prayers,  and  the  Office  of 
Vespers,  and  then  betook  themselves  to  their  favourite 
occupation — they  drew  up  an  Act  of  Protest,  and  the 
next  day  Angelique  de  Saint  Jean  wrote  to  one  of  the 
best  friends  of  the  Community,  Mademoiselle  de  Vertus, 
a  long  comment  on  the  events  of  the  preceding  day.    She 
says  : — "  This  is  what  we  have  come  to  be,  dogs  which 
eat  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  their  master's  table.     And 
from  this  place  we  cannot  be  driven,  and  thither  we  shall 
betake  ourselves,  so  long  as  the  Mass  lasts,  being  present 
and  sharing  in  it  just  as  the  penitent  thief  shared  in  the 
Sacrifice  of  our  Lord,  by  the  portion  we  have  of  His 
reproach,  of  His  sufferings."    She  goes  on  to  speak  of 
her  aunt,  the  Mere  Agnes,  "who,  after  having  lived  for 
seventy-one  years  an  angel's    life,    is   now  numbered 
among  criminals." 

As  a  last  resource,  they  addressed  a  solemn  prayer 
to  that  very  dear  saint,  Louis  IX.  of  France,  that  he 
would  intercede  to  God  on  their  behalf;  for  had  he  not 
also  been  delivered  into  the  hands  of  sinful  men  for  the 
glory  of  God  ? 

X 


322  PERSECUTION 

Port  Royal  was  not  friendless,  and  the  inmates  were 
kept  well  informed  of  what  was  known  in  the  outside 
world  about  them.  It  was  reported  to  them  that  the 
Archbishop  was  arranging-  that  room  should  be  found 
in  different  convents  for  some  of  the  more  recalcitrant. 
Very  little  sleep  did  the  nuns  seek  on  these  terrible 
August  nights,  and  prayers  and  bitter  weeping  were  the 
portion  of  most.  The  Prioress,  the  Mother,  Mere 
Agnes,  all  implored  forgiveness  of  their  Sisters  for  any 
faults  into  which  they  each  might  have  fallen  in  the 
exercise  of  their  office,  and  word  having  been  brought 
on  the  25th  of  August,  that  probably  the  Community 
would  be  dispersed  on  that  day,  one  of  the  Sisters, 
Anne  Eugenie,  went  to  tell  Mere  Agnes.  Meeting 
M.  d'Andilly,  she  said  with  perfect  calmness,  but  can 
we  not  imagine  with  what  quivering  lips  :  "  Haec  est  dies 
quam  fecit  Dominus  "  (this  is  the  day  which  the  Lord 
hath  made).  Agnes  rose  and  went  down  to  see 
M.  d'Andilly,  "I  cannot  talk,"  she  said,  "but  I  can 
say  '  Haec  dies'  with  you."  They  recited  the  verse, 
and  then  she  said  :  "  We  must  put  off  our  talk  until  we 
meet  before  God ;  the  Community  want  me." 

She  went  to  the  assembled  Community  and  tried 
to  utter  words  of  comfort.  Then  came  Terce,  and  the 
morning  wore  away  in  pious  reading.  About  two 
o'clock  Agnes  came  back  to  them,  and  said  she  had  only 
a  moment  once  again  to  ask  forgiveness  for  every  fault, 
"  I  beg  you  to  pray  to  God  that  He  will  grant  me  the 
grace  to  use  this  condition  on  which  I  am  entering  for 
their  amendment ;  and  I  entreat  you  if  any  one  is  spiteful 
enough  to  say  I  have  signed — not  to  believe  it — ever." 

She  had  scarcely  finished  when  news  was  brought 
that  the  Archbishop  had  come  with  seven  or  eight 
carriages.  A  burst  of  grief  followed;  can  we  not 
imagine  that  even  the  grave  self-possessed  Port  Royal- 
ists would  lose  their  control.  They  were  Frenchwomen 
accustomed  to  show  feeling.  They  loved  their  Mothers 
in  Religion,  they  believed  that  in  Port  Royal,  if  not 
exclusively,  at  least  pre-eminently,  the  Religious  Life 
was  really  practised.  What  tears  were  shed!  They 


THE  REMOVAL  OF  M^KE  AGN^S   323 

crowded  again  into  Mere  Agnes's  room,  Ang£lique 
representing  to  her  that  she  must  not  refuse  to  give 
them  her  blessing,  and  they  all  struggled  to  embrace 
her.  Their  love  entirely  broke  down  all  the  reserve  and 
reticence  of  Port  Royal,  but  Angdique  de  St  Jean, 
seeing  that  some  of  the  novices  would  be  completely 
overcome,  gently  restrained  them,  and  "  obedience  more 
powerful  than  grief  immediately  choked  their  voices 
and  gave  vent  only  to  tears." 

In  the  sad  moments  when  the  Sisters  were  waiting 
for  orders,  the  Mother  having  gone  to  meet  the  Arch- 
bishop, one  of  them,  the  aunt  of  Racine  the  poet,  said 
to  Mere  Agnes  that  hitherto  she  had  always  felt  that 
the  verse  in  the  Gospel  "  Ecce  nos  reliquimus  omnia  " 
troubled  her,  for  she  could  not  feel  that  she  had  left 
anything,  and  now  she  began  to  hope  it  might  be  true 
also  of  her  that  she  had  left  all  for  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Archbishop  had  for  some  reason  or  other 
brought  a  guard  with  him.  In  fact,  the  circumstance  is 
rather  an  evidence  of  the  suspicion  which  beset  the 
royal  minds  that  Port  Royal  was  in  reality  a  nest  of 
conspirators  and  that  a  rescue  might  be  attempted. 

Indeed,  as  the  compiler  of  this  Relation  remarks,  "It 
was  an  extraordinary  and  unparalleled  sight  to  see  him 
who  was  our  Father  and  Pastor  in  his  double  office  of 
Archbishop  and  Superior  so  completely  losing  the 
feelings  which  are  natural  to  both  these,  and  losing  them 
in  connection  with  the  most  obedient  of  his  daughters, 
so  that  he  treated  them  as  he  might  have  done  the  most 
lawless  and  abandoned  persons,  by  causing  the  house  to 
be  surrounded  and  by  entering  it  himself  guarded  by 
archers  who  could  be  seen  from  the  windows  drawn  up 
in  order  with  muskets  on  their  shoulders  exactly  as  if 
they  were  in  camp."  But,  absurd  as  it  all  seems,  we 
who  can  perfectly  remember  blameless  priests  of  our  own 
Communion  being  haled  to  prison  for  practices  now 
sanctioned,  cannot  afford  to  plume  ourselves  on  our 
great  superiority. 

The  Archbishop  had  in  the  meantime  arrived  at  the 
entrance ;  he  was  met  by  M.  d'Andilly,  who  threw 


324  PERSECUTION 

himself  at  M.  de  P6refixe's  feet,  and  begged  that  at 
least  he  might  be  allowed  to  remove  his  three  daughters 
and  his  sister  to  Pomponne,  his  own  estate,  from  which 
his  eldest  son,  M.  de  Pomponne,  at  one  time  French 
Ambassador  at  the  Court  of  Sweden,  and  a  great 
friend  of  Mme.  de  Sevign<§,  took  his  title.  This  request 
was  refused.  The  Sisters  were  assembled  in  the  Chapel, 
and  the  Archbishop  after  a  preamble  came  to  the  gist  of 
his  speech.  The  Mother  (Agn£s  de  Ligni),  Mere 
Agn£s  Arnauld,  Angelique  de  St  Jean  her  niece,  and 
nine  others  were  to  be  removed  to  other  Convents. 
The  Mother  arose  and  mildly  protested,  and  the  whole 
Community  echoed,  "  nous  protestons,  nous  protestons ! " 
They  implored  him  to  consider  that  Mere  Agnes,  who 
was  now  seventy-three,  would  assuredly  receive  her 
deathblow.  It  was  all  in  vain;  the  Sisters  retired  to 
make  their  hasty  preparations,  and  Mother  Agnes,  who 
no  doubt  could  not  move  very  quickly,  made  him  very 
angry  by  her  tardiness. 

Angelique  de  St  Jean,  always  calm  and  collected, 
asked  him  respectfully,  but  with  (surely)  a  little  irony 
in  her  voice,  if  he  would  give  the  Sisters  a  written 
permission  to  leave,  for  as  cloistered  nuns  they  could 
not  quit  their  Convent  without  it.  This  seemed  in 
some  degree  to  please  M.  de  Per£fixe.  They  were 
behaving,  he  said,  as  good  nuns  should ! 

At  last  all  was  ready.  Agnes  could  hardly  climb 
into  the  carriage,  but  M.  d'Andilly,  who,  as  Sainte 
Beuve  remarks,  acted  as  Master  of  the  Ceremonies, 
helped  her  to  get  in.  She  murmured  to  him  as  she 
took  her  place:  "It  seems,  my  brother,  that  it  is  as 
when  Caiaphas  said  :  *  It  is  expedient  that  one  man  die 
for  the  people,  that  the  whole  nation  perish  not/  So  it 
is  now,  our  house  must  be  destroyed  for  the  truth,  so 
that  all  the  rest  do  not  lose  it  utterly." 

Each  of  M.  d'Andilly's  daughters  knelt  at  his  feet 
and  received  his  blessing,  and  he  led  each  one  in  front 
of  the  altar  as  if  to  offer  her  again  to  God ;  he  saw 
each  of  the  Sisters  into  one  of  the  four  carriages,  and 
the  exiles  were  taken  away. 


ARRIVAL  OF  MERE  EUGENIE       325 

The  Archbishop  seemed  almost  amused  by  this 
heart-rending  scene,  but  some  of  his  attendant  clergy 
were  horror-stricken. 

The  remainder  of  the  Community  returned  to  the 
Chapel  and  proceeded  in  the  temporary  absence  of  the 
Archbishop  to  say  None. 

M.  de  Perefixe  then  made  a  searching  examination 
of  the  garden,  and  found  there  one  of  the  Solitaires,  an 
Englishman,  who  for  more  than  twenty  years  had  lived 
first  at  Port  Royal  and  then  at  Paris ;  he  was  rudely 
dismissed,  and  took  refuge  with  the  Due  de  Liancourt.1 

The  legal  authorities  who  had  accompanied  the 
Archbishop  were  somewhat  annoyed  to  find  themselves 
confronted  by  a  band  of  innocent  nuns,  and  left  as  soon 
as  possible.  And  the  Archbishop  fumed,  and  fretted, 
and  scolded,  as  he  wandered  about  waiting  for  the  nuns 
whom  he  intended  to  settle  at  Port  Royal  in  the  place 
of  the  exiles. 

At  last,  at  five  o'clock,  a  carriage  drew  up,  contain- 
ing five  of  the  religious  from  the  convent  of  the 
Visitation.  At  their  head  was  a  not  altogether 
undistinguished  nun,  Eugenie  de  Fontaine.  This  lady 
had  been  brought  up  in  the  Reformed  Religion,  and 
after  her  conversion  to  Catholicism  had  been  a 
professed  nun  in  the  Community  founded  by  Madame 
de  Chantal,  who,  long  ago,  had  been  on  terms  of 
friendship  with  Mere  Angelique.  Mere  Eugenie  had 
had  the  office  of  "reforming"  Port  Royal  proposed  to 
her  by  the  Queen  Mother  herself.  The  Archbishop 
himself  admitted  the  new  arrivals,  amid  the  protesta- 
tions of  the  Port  Royalists.  M.  de  Perefixe  ordered 
the  Community  to  assemble  in  Chapter,  and  then  with 
extreme  tenderness  and  benignity,  told  them  that  he 
was  about  to  give  them  a  new  Superior.  Fresh 
protestations  ensued,  and  the  Archbishop,  as  usual, 
lost  his  temper  and  threatened  them  with  unknown 
and  terrific  punishment  if  they  refused  to  obey  Mere 

1  The  name  of  this  "  gentilhomme  "  was  Francis  Jenkins  ;  he  returned 
to  Port  Royal  des  Champs  in  1669  and  remained  there  until  his  death, 
1690. 


326  PERSECUTION 

Eugenie,  on  whom  he  bestowed  a  panegyric,  during 
which  the  newly  arrived  Mother  and  the  Sisters 
knelt  down.  The  Archbishop  then  installed  the  new 
Mother,  whereupon  many  of  these  very  recalcitrant 
Port  Royalists  left  the  Chapter,  and  the  rest  were  with 
difficulty  compelled  to  kiss  Mere  Eugenie.  This  over, 
M.  Chamillard  asked  the  Archbishop  if  it  were  possible 
to  allow  the  Sisters  (as  one  of  them  had  requested)  to 
approach  the  Sacraments,  and  the  prelate  said  he 
would  leave  that  to  the  confessor,  M.  Chamillard. 

The  Archbishop  went  away.  The  Port  Royalists 
drew  up  a  Proces  verbal,  and  this  miserable  day 
ended.  It  may  be  imagined  that  the  relations  between 
the  newcomers  and  the  Port  Royalists  were  consider- 
ably strained.  The  Mother,  Mere  Eugenie,  was,  as 
we  should  say  nowadays,  a  thorough-going  ultra- 
montane, and  looked  upon  blind  obedience  as  the 
highest  virtue ;  for  the  rest,  they  were  all  good 
religious,  but  one  of  them  especially  seems  to  have  won 
the  heart  of  the  Port  Royalists  by  her  gentleness  and 
piety.  She  was  related  to  the  unfortunate  M.  Fouquet,1 
whose  tragic  fate  has  been  so  admirably  narrated  by 
Mme.  de  Sevigne. 

But  nothing  could  make  the  situation  anything  but 
intolerable,  and  no  doubt  the  Port  Royalists  were  not 
disposed  to  look  on  the  Sisters  of  the  Order  of  the 
Visitation  with  favourable  eyes.  It  is  a  little  odd 
perhaps,  as  one  reads  the  Histoire,  to  note  how  the 
chief  defect  in  these  "Visitation  Nuns"  was  their 
principle  of  blind  obedience.  Yet,  after  all,  the  essential 
of  the  Religious  Life  is  obedience,  and  we  cannot  but 
feel  that  there  is  something  to  be  said  for  their  point  of 
view  when  we  read  the  account  of  the  younger  Sisters, 
Christine  Briquet,  and  Eustachie  de  St  Bregy. 

There  was  now  dissension  in  Port  Royal. 

Sceur  Flavie,  who  we  may  remember  had  been  the 

1  Fouquet  had  been  Louis  XIV.'s  financial  minister ;  he  was  tried  for 
dishonesty  and  condemned  to  lifelong  imprisonment  in  1661.  He  had 
been  decidedly  on  the  side  of  Port  Royal — another  cause  for  Louis 
XIV.'s  dislike  of  the  Community. 


THE  DISSENSIONS  AT  PORT  EOYAL  327 

first  to  notice  the  miraculous  cure  worked  on  Marguerite 
Perier,  was  a  traitor  in  the  camp.  Her  great  work  was 
by  dissimulation  ;  she  was  suspected  by  her  Sisters,  who 
were  warned  by  outsiders  that  someone  within  had 
betrayed  them  to  the  Archbishop.  The  confessor,  M. 
Chamillard,  was  continually  calumniating  those  who 
had  been  taken  away,  and  "scenes"  were  of  continued 
occurrence.  Several  nuns  gave  way,  nor  is  it  a  matter 
of  amazement  that  they  did  so.  Christine  Briquet  and 
Eustachie  de  St  Br6gy  lived  in  constant  expectation 
of  being  taken  away  to  other  Convents,  and  the  daily 
life  grew  more  and  more  intolerable.  Mere  Eugenie 
was  disconcerted  and  offended  by  the  portions  from 
books  which  were  read  aloud  at  meals,  and  sometimes 
accused  the  readers  of  inventing  what  they  read. 
The  works  of  St  Augustine  had  to  be  banished. 

It  was  all  petty,  intolerable.  A  house  noted  for 
lofty  piety,  care  for  the  poor,  simplicity,  and  austerity 
of  life,  was  broken  up  and  on  the  verge  of  ruin. 

Several  poor  Sisters  again  yielded,  one  a  sister  of  M. 
du  Fosse,  from  whose  memoirs  we  have  quoted.  It  is 
piteous  to  read  the  account  of  her  misery.  She  came 
before  the  assembled  Community,  and,  kneeling  down, 
sobbed  out  a  confession,  ending :  "  I  entreat  you  to  believe 
that  I  will  never  do  anything  against  you,  and  I  pray 
God  with  all  my  heart  that  if  I  have  offended  Him  (but 
I  do  not  think  I  have,  for  what  I  did  was  out  of  pure 
obedience),  He  will  punish  me  in  this  world." 

This  sort  of  life  went  on  for  about  four  years.  In  the 
meanwhile  M.  de  Perefixe  paid  a  visit  to  Port  Royal 
des  Champs,  but  failed  to  make  any  impression  on  the 
Community  there.  At  the  Paris  house,  Sceur  Melthide 
had  retracted  her  signature.  The  Archbishop  arrived 
one  night,  terrifying  the  Sisters  so  much  that  several 
fainted.  He  did  what  had  been  expected,  carried  off  the 
two  ringleaders,  Eustachie  de  St  Bregy  and  Christine 
Briquet,  and  also  Sceur  Melthide.  Both  Eustachie  and 
Christine,  clever,  witty,  and  high-spirited  nuns,  with  not 
a  little  pride  (and,  in  the  case  of  Christine,  some  youth- 
ful exuberance),  had  been  a  good  deal  tormented  by 


328  PERSECUTION 

their  relations.  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  although  free 
from  dissensions,  was  not  in  much  better  case,  as  the 
inmates  thereof  were  deprived  of  the  Sacraments,  and 
that  much  loved  physician,  M.  Hamon,  was  obliged  to 
retire  from  Port  Royal.  And  on  the  1 5th  of  February 
1665,  Pope  Alexander  VII.,  urged  by  some  of  the 
French  Bishops,  published  a  Bull  which  struck  a 
heavy  blow  at  Jansenism.  The  five  condemned  pro- 
positions were,  this  Bull  declared,  extracted  from  the 
book  entitled  Augustinus>  and  were  condemned  in  the 
sense  attributed  to  them  by  Jansenius. 

Now,  no  one  of  the  so-called  Jansenists  ever  hesitated 
to  condemn  the  five  propositions — what  they  did  refuse 
was  to  acknowledge  by  an  unconditional  subscription 
that  these  propositions  were  in  the  Augustinus,  or  that 
Jansenius  held  these  doctrines.  To  this  Bull  the 
condemned  party  calmly  replied  that  no  Pope  could 
issue  such  a  Bull.  In  fact,  the  Jansenist  party,  with 
all  their  faults,  stood  for  true  Catholic  principles  against 
ultramontanism ;  they  are  the  spiritual  ancestors  of 
those  who  withstood  the  Vatican  decrees  of  1870. 

The  compiler  of  the  Histoire  de  Port  Royal  has 
this  significant  comment :  "  In  order  to  exact  such  an 
oath,  the  Pope  must  regard  himself  as  infallible  in  these 
kinds  of  facts,  and  this  may  be  regarded  as  a  new 
heresy  invented  by  the  Jesuits." 

Various  propositions  were  made ;  one  was,  that  a 
conference  should  be  held,  but  the  Prioress  of  Port 
Royal  des  Champs  was  not  unnaturally  alarmed  at  the 
idea,  especially  when  she  found  that  Angelique  de 
St  Jean  was  to  be  excluded  by  the  wish  of  M.  de 
Paris. 

The  Easter  Communion  was  denied  to  the  poor 
nuns.  There  came  a  day  when  Anne  of  Austria, 
who  held  Mere  Eugenie  in  high  favour,  paid  a  visit 
to  Port  Royal.  One  of  the  unfortunate  Sisters  flung 
herself  at  Anne  of  Austria's  feet,  imploring  her  to  inter- 
cede for  them,  that  they  might  have  Holy  Communion. 
'  *  Obey ;  what  nuns,  to  disobey  their  Archbishop ;  what 
a  horrible  thing ! "  was  Anne  of  Austria's  angry  reply. 


THE  BISHOP  OF  ANGEES  329 

It  is  sad  reading,  this  Histoire  des  Persecutions, 
the  pettiness,  the  angry  bickerings,  the  sharp  criticisms 
of  the  nuns  of  the  Visitation,  and  the  contempt  which 
the  Port  Royalists  express  for  Mere  Eugenie,  do  make 
us  feel  that  the  second  generation  of  Port  Royal  is  not 
of  the  same  spirit  as  the  first. 

But  Mere  Agnes  and  her  niece,  Angelique  de  St 
Jean,  and  M.  de  St  Marthe  were  ever  on  a  high  plane. 
The  last  named  writes  : — 

"It  is  a  great  consolation  for  us  to  learn  by  ex- 
perience that  in  our  conflicts  for  Jesus  Christ,  there 
is  no  need  of  great  intelligence,  great  knowledge,  or 
extraordinary  virtue.  Children,  the  imperfect  and  the 
ignorant,  can  always  vanquish  when  He  Who  invites 
them  to  the  fight  fights  in  them  and  gives  them  the 
victory.  We  have  always  reasons  to  fear,  since  only 
perseverance  to  the  end  will  complete  our  salvation  ;  but 
we  have  also  great  reasons  to  ^hope  that  God  Who  has 
begun  His  work  will  finish  it." 

A  volume,  Apologie  pour  les  Religieuses  du  Port 
Royal,  is  still  to  be  found  in  collections  of  Port 
Royal  literature,  with  lengthy  letters  (firoces  verbaux] 
addressed  to  the  Archbishop,  and  a  protracted  corre- 
spondence between  M.  de  Paris  and  Henri  Arnauld, 
Bishop  of  Angers,  and  son  of  Antoine  Arnauld,  the 
"pere  de  tous  les  notres."  The  Bishop  of  Angers  had 
all  the  courage  of  his  family  and  defended  the  un- 
fortunate Port  Royalists  with  skill,  courtesy,  and 
fearlessness.  He  points  out  that  the  persecution  of 
Port  Royal  was  no  new  thing,  and  that  the  animosity 
which  had  broken  out  so  strongly  against  Jansenius 
and  against  Port  Royal  was  due  to  the  Jesuits.  As 
one  reads  M.  d  Ang-ers's  letters,  one  perceives  how  nearly 
akin  he  is  to  the  really  best  and  most  representative  of 
our  Anglican  teachers. 

Port  Royal  and  all  its  friends  were  a  sort  of  break- 
water for  the  time  against  ultramontanism.  And  from 
their  point  of  view  the  Jesuits  were  perfectly  right  in 
desiring  to  suppress  Port  Royal.  Louis  XIV.  was 


330  PERSECUTION 

an  admirable  coadjutor,  and  M.  de  Perefixe  was  unable 
to  take  anything  but  a  narrow  and  temporary  view. 

The  point  on  which  the  Bishop  of  Angers  seizes  is 
not  whether  the  nuns  were  to  be  justified  or  punished 
for  refusing  to  sign  the  Formulary,  but  the  extreme 
injustice  of  proposing  to  them,  or  exacting  from  them, 
such  a  signature.  And  indeed  this  is  the  point.  Why 
engage  a  convent  of  women  in  abstruse  theological 
discussions  and  exact  from  them  a  signature,  which, 
if  given  blindly  (according  to  their  favourite  phrase — 
"une  aveugle  obeissance),  was  purely  valueless;  and, 
if  given  with  knowledge,  implied  past  study  of  and 
comprehension  of  a  difficult  book,  and  condemnation  of 
teachers,  theologians,  directors,  revered  and  justly 
revered  by  them  ? 

M.  de  Paris  replied  with  a  good  deal  of  acrimony, 
and  M.  d' Angers  rejoined  in  dignified  and  respectful 
but  very  weighty  terms.  In  this  second  letter  M. 
d'Angers's  great  point  is  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
the  Jansenian  heresy.  No  one  dreams  of  maintaining 
the  famous  Five  Propositions ;  and  as  for  the  supposed 
heresy  concerning  grace,  the  Jansenists  were  entirely  in 
accordance  with  St  Thomas  Aquinas.  It  was  ridiculous 
to  make  it  a  point  of  faith  to  affirm,  a  heresy  to  deny, 
that  these  propositions  were  in  the  Augustinus. 

He  points  out  how  possible  it  is  for  the  spirit  of  the 
Pharisees  to  arise  in  the  Church  :  "  This  man  is  not  of 
God,  he  keepeth  not  the  Sabbath  day."  "  But,"  con- 
tinues the  Bishop :  "  They  did  not  say  that  if  He  did 
not  keep  the  Sabbath  day  in  a  slavish  obedience,  it 
was  only  that  He  might  do  good  to  men  by  His 
miracles." 

"  However,  Monseigneur,"  he  goes  on  with  hardly 
suppressed  indignation,  "this  is  the  way  in  which  the 
imaginary  sect  of  Jansenist  heretics  has  been  founded." 

The  Bishop  makes  an  excellent  point  when  he  cites 
the  case  of  the  Decretals : — It  is  mostly  heretics  who 
deny  them,  but  would  it  be  wise  for  any  Pope  to  insist 
on  every  theologian  signing  a  formulary  that  they  were 
genuine?  yet  many  more  Popes  have  approved  these 


BISHOP'S  DEFENCE  OF  PORT  ROYAL  331 

Decretals  than  have  as  yet  condemned  Jansenius,  and 
the  people  who  reject  them  are  certainly  generally 
heretics." 

There  is  a  touch  of  chivalry,  of  the  Arnauld  spirit, 
in  his  words  :  "  I  am  not  persuaded  that  it  is  unworthy 
of  those  who  wear  the  mitre  of  a  Bishop  to  be  the 
champions  of  those  who  they  believe  are  unrighteously 
oppressed." 

He  also  points  out  that  extreme  indulgence  is  shown 
to  the  Jesuits,  and  goes  on  at  great  length  and  with 
considerable  acumen  to  throw  doubt  on  the  powers 
of  any  Bishop  to  exact  signatures  of  the  kind  in  question 
from  religious,  and  says  that  this  way  of  exacting 
submission,  outward  and  inward,  was  not  calculated 
to  make  for  peace ;  in  most  solemn  terms  he  reminds 
Monseigneur  de  Paris  that  our  Lord  Himself  "does 
not  wish  us  to  tyrannise  over  the  souls  which  are  so 
dear  to  Him,  Whom  He  has  redeemed  with  His  Own 
Blood.  It  is  His  Will  that  they  should  be  directed  by 
us  with  charity,  and  insight,  that  we  should  teach  them 
what  they  ought  to  do,  not  that  we  should  make  them 
act  without  any  judgment. 

"God  Himself  desires  from  us  a  reasonable  service 
and  willing  sacrifices.  How  is  it  possible  then  for  us, 
who  are  but  His  ministers,  to  propose  to  treat  as  beasts, 
or  as  slaves,  those  whom  He  has  deigned  to  make  His 
children,  and  to  refuse  to  them  any  reasons  for  the 
commands  we  give  them  ?  .  .  . 

"  I  do  not  see,  Monseigneur,  if  we  enforce  the  signa- 
ture of  the  Formulary,  how  we  can  dispense  ourselves 
from  saying  precisely  and  clearly  whether  we  mean  to 
imply  by  that  an  inward  belief  of  the  truth  of  the  fact, 
or  simply  that  we  desire  respect  and  silence. 

"For,  as  I  have  said,  the f signature  is  a  mode  of 
speech  in  itself;  and  it  is  against  every  right,  human 
and  divine,  to  compel  a  man  to  use  any  mode  of  speech 
which  is  unintelligible  to  him.  If  an  explanation  is 
refused  him,  he  is  in^his  right  if  he  explains  for  himself 
an  obscure  and  equivocal  speech,  to  be  corrected  if  he 
does  so  badly.  But  it  is  an  absolutely  baseless  idea, 
that  there  is  any  law  of  the  Church  which  takes  away 


332  PERSECUTION 

this  freedom,  and  which  blames  persons  for  not  being 
content  simply  to  sign  their  names. 

"  Indeed,  Monseigneur,  it  is  astonishing  to  see  with 
what  boldness  new  writers  impose  on  us  new  laws, 
new  maxims,  and  new  Canons  of  which  we  have  never 
heard." 

These  extracts  show  how  entirely  Catholic,  how 
absolutely  unultramontane,  was  Henri  d' Angers.  If 
only  his  wise  counsels  had  prevailed,  if  only  his 
temper  of  mind,  so  akin  to  the  words  we  have  quoted 
on  p.  318  from  some  writers  of  our  own  Communion 
and  our  own  day,  had  prevailed,  what  might  not  have 
been  the  later  history  of  Christendom  ?  How  much 
nearer  towards  realisation  would  be  the  unity  of  the 
Church! 

We  will  now  turn  to  the  exiles.  Mere  Agnes,  who 
was  now  very  old  and  infirm,  seems  to  have  received 
nothing  but  kindness  from  the  nuns  into  whose  house 
she  had  been  sent.  She  writes  to  her  brother,  M. 
d'Andilly :  "I  am  in  a  place  where  charity  reigns  to 
anticipate  all  my  needs.  For  the  rest,  you  would  wish 
that  I  should  drink  the  cup  which  our  Heavenly  Father 
has  prepared  for  me,  and  that  I  may  wish  that  He 
should  inebriate  me  with  it,  so  that  I  may  forget  all 
things  save  Jesus,  and  Jesus  crucified.  This  is  my 
second  vocation,  for  my  first  one  did  not  afford  me  such 
suitable  and  efficacious  means  for  imitating  the  Son  of 
God  in  His  life  of  obscurity  and  of  humility.  I  desire 
to  be  hidden  in  that  life  with  Him.  I  should  say 
'we,'  for  my  dear  companion  feels  just  the  same,  and 
has  proposed  a  renewal  of  our  Religious  Life  in  this 
changed  state  of  things,  in  which  we  are  compelled 
to  sacrifice  to  God  at  each  moment  everything  we  hold 
most  dear;  this  is  a  duty  binding  on  all  who  would 
be  His,  but  all  of  us  fail  more  or  less  in  it  and  act  with 
reserves  [towards  God].  .  ." 

She  writes  to  M.  d' Angers  that  although  she  and 
those  with  her  can  get  no  news  of  their  friends  outside, 
yet,  so  far  as  their  treatment  from  the  nuns  of  the 
Visitation  is  concerned,  "we  receive  from  them  every 


ANGELIQUE  DE  ST  JEAN  333 

help  we  could  desire  in  anything-  of  which  we  have 
need." 

Agnes  was  full  of  tenderness.  She  had  with  her 
a  niece,  another  daughter  of  M.  d'Andilly,  Ang£lique 
de  Sainte  Therese.  This  poor  child  was  won  over, 
chiefly  by  the  Abbe"  Bossuet,  hereafter  to  be  known 
as  a  stern  opponent  of  a  liberal  school  of  thought. 
Agnes  was  very  tender  to  this  niece.  She  felt  some 
penitence  a  little  later  for  their  indifference  about  the 
signature ;  but  indeed,  as  M.  Sainte  Beuve  has  pointed 
out,  Agnes's  vocation  was  a  vocation  of  prayer,  not  of 
controversy,  and  these  miserable  controversies  must 
have  appeared  so  extraordinarily  insignificant  in  view 
of  the  Eternity  to  which  she  was  drawing  so  near. 
Angelique  de  St  Jean  was  another  order  of  being-. 
She  had  a  grand  esprit ;  it  is  to  her  that  we  chiefly  owe 
the  notes  on  Mere  Angelique's  life  in  the  Mtmoires pour 
Servir,  and  she  had  a  great  admiration  for  Pascal. 
Sainte  Beuve  says  of  her  that  the  Rtcit  of  her  imprison- 
ment which  she  drew  up,  reveals  to  us  "  une  dme  forte, 
triste,  capable  de  toutes  les  belles  agonies,  une  dme 
grande  aussi  dans  son  ordre  et  admirable."  The  story 
of  Angelique  was  only  printed  after  the  complete  ruin 
of  Port  Royal. 

Angelique's  story  is  extraordinarily  interesting-. 
She  makes  us  realise  the  sadness  of  the  exile  from 
Port  Royal,  and  how  she  struggled  to  sing  Psalms  and 
Hymns  and  spiritual  songs  in  her  heart,  "  *  Urbs  Beata* 
(Blessed  City)  among  others,  trying  to  represent  to 
herself  that  she  and  the  other  Sisters  were  living  stones, 
cut  and  polished  for  that  living  Temple." 

Angelique  was  sent  to  the  Convent  of  the  Annuncia- 
tion ;  she  exchanged  a  few  hasty  words  with  the  young 
priest  who  had  accompanied  her,  and  who  showed 
himself  friendly,  and  when  the  Superior  appeared,  he 
said :  "  Madame,  I  bring  you  a  saint ;  all  the  Port 
Royalist  Sisters  are  saints."  Angelique  and  he  took 
leave  of  each  other,  and  she  knelt  down  and  promised 
obedience  to  the  Superior  as  long  as  she  was  in  the 
house.  With  the  Superior  came  Madame  de  Rantzau, 


334  PEESECUTION 

known  in  Religion  as  La  Mere  Elisabeth,  the  widow  of 
a  celebrated  general.  She  was  a  German  by  birth,  had 
been  converted  to  Catholicism,  and  was  supposed  to 
have  a  special  genius  for  controversy. 

They  first  went  to  the  Chapel  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception,  and  Angelique's  comment  is  curious  and 
interesting.  "  I  was  taken  first  to  the  Chapel  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception ;  this  Mystery  was  new  to  me, 
for  with  us  there  are  no  altars  dedicated  to  any  disputed 
doctrine ;  but,  all  the  same,  in  this  place  I  was  possessed 
with  a  particular  devotion,  and  it  was  to  throw  myself 
into  the  arms  of  the  Holy  Mother  of  sweet  comfort." 

From  the  Chapel  they  went  into  the  garden,  and 
poor  Ang£lique  could  not  keep  back  her  tears  on  being 
questioned  on  the  day's  events.  Nevertheless,  both  the 
Superior  and  Mme.  de  Rantzau  professed  perfect 
ignorance  of  all  controversial  matters.  Everything 
seemed  to  be  done  to  make  her  comfortable.  A  lay 
Sister  was  told  off  to  wait  on  her,  and  she  had  permis- 
sion to  attend  the  Offices  or  not  as  she  pleased.  So 
the  evening  passed  away,  and  Angdique  prepared  for 
rest.  "  But  when  the  night  had  come  and  I  lay  down 
to  rest,  I  felt  as  if  my  mind  had  been  numb  until  then, 
and  that  all  at  once  it,  as  it  were,  fell  from  a  height  on 
my  heart,  which  was  bruised  by  the  blow.  For  in  a 
moment  I  felt  myself  broken  down,  torn  on  every  side 
by  the  separations  I  had  so  lately  gone  through  and  by 
the  agony  of  all  those  whom  I  had  left  in  as  great 
affliction  as  my  own." 

It  was  indeed  a  frightful  situation.  Ang£lique  was 
now  forty  years  of  age,  and  for  thirty-four  years  she  had 
been  an  inhabitant  of  Port  Royal — for  twenty  years  a 
nun.  She  was  torn  at  once  from  her  natural  protectors, 
her  father,  her  aunts,  from  her  sisters  in  Religion,  and 
from  her  spiritual  guides.  She  was  in  a  strange 
Community,  who  had  been  imbued  with  other  ideas 
than  those  of  Port  Royal,  and  she  was  only  in  early 
middle  life ;  what  was  to  be  the  end  ? 

Mass  and  the  Offices  brought  her  much  comfort,  as 
did  an  hour  spent  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  This 


ANG^LIQUE'S  CAPTIVITY  335 

devotion,  of  "  Visits  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament,"  so 
attractive  and  comforting-  to  many  souls,  was,  it  will 
be  remembered,  a  recent  development  in  devotional 
practice.1  Ange"lique  says  she  was  rather  frightened 
at  first,  for  this  devotion  was  a  good  deal  restricted  at 
Port  Royal ;  but  the  knowledge  that  our  Lord  would 
hear  her  gave  her  strength,  and  she  poured  out  her 
troubles. 

Everyone  was  very  kind.  Angdique  did  not  notice 
at  first  that  she  was  virtually  a  prisoner,  but  she  soon 
discovered  that  she  was  locked  up  in  her  little  room 
during  the  intervals  between  meals  and  Offices.  And 
it  added  not  a  little  to  her  misery  to  find  that  the 
confessors  of  the  Annunciation  were  Jesuits,  Pere 
Nouet  among  them,  he  who  had  so  long  ago  fulminated 
against  La  Frtquente  Communion. 

The  first  days  of  anguish  and  separation  passed ; 
they  seemed  as  years.  She  hardly  saw  anyone  except 
the  lay  Sister  who  attended  to  her  wants,  and  who  was 
"  a  very  good  girl,  strong  and  gentle  and  most  careful 
to  anticipate  my  every  need,  so  that,  as  she  said,  I 
should  ask  for  nothing  and  complain  of  nothing." 

And  Angelique  says  she  was  truly  touched  by  the 
kindness  of  the  Community,  because  it  seemed  they 
might  have  treated  her  quite  harshly. 

She  entered  meantime  the  second  period  of  sorrow, 
the  period  which  most  Christians  are  called  upon  at 
times  to  experience,  the  time  when  God  seems  to  hide 
His  face,  and  from  the  very  depths  of  the  soul  comes 
the  cry:  "Is  it  worth  while?"  Terrible  doubts,  the 
temptation  to  abandon  the  struggle  rushed  in  upon 
her,  and  no  spiritual  joy  and  consolation  came  to  her. 
She  describes  in  a  letter  to  her  uncle,  Antoine  Arnauld, 
how  she  felt  inclined  to  question  the  elementary  truths 
of  religion.  Like  many  another  strong  soul,  Angelique 
faced  the  black  abyss  of  doubt.  Pascal  is  her  spiritual 
kinsman.  It  is  the  way  by  which  God  tries  many  elect 
souls;  they  are  brought  into  a  wilderness;  they  go 

1  See  Father  Thurston  in  a  Preface  to  Coram  Sanctissimo. 


336  PERSECUTION 

through  fire  and  water ;  but  they  are  at  last  brought 
into  a  wealthy  place. 

And  in  time  the  peace  of  God  came  back  to  Ang6- 
lique's  strong  soul ;  she  was  sent  for  a  few  days  to  hear 
Mass  and  the  Offices  in  a  Chapel  behind  the  Altar,  in 
order  that  a  relative  of  one  of  the  Port  Royal  Sisters  might 
not  see  her,  and  in  this  poor  bare  little  place  she 
experienced  much  happiness.  She  heard  that  her 
father  had  written  to  the  Mother,  who  gave  M. 
d'Andilly's  letter  to  Angelique,  and  permitted  her  to 
write  a  line  to  him  in  reply. 

As  Advent  of  this  melancholy  year,  1664,  drew  on, 
Angelique  absented  herself  wholly  from  the  Divine 
Office  and  the  Mass,  in  order  to  escape  sermons 
preached  by  Jesuit  Fathers.  Most  probably  she  would 
have  heard  controversial  matter  and  many  unkind  and 
untrue  statements ;  in  order  to  avoid  any  remark  she 
herself  proposed  to  the  Superior  that  she  should  be 
confined  in  her  cell.  She  had  one  of  those  intensely 
happy  seasons,  one  of  those  foretastes  of  joy,  one  of 
those  sojourns  in  that  land  of  Beulah  where  "the  sun 
shineth  night  and  day,  wherefore  this  was  beyond  the 
Valley,  the  shadow  of  death,  and  also  out  of  the 
reach  of  Giant  Despair ;  neither  could  they  from  this 
place  so  much  as  see  Doubting  Castle." 

She  says  herself: — 

"At  these  times,  when  I  did  not  go  out  on  Festivals 
and  Sundays  to  be  present  at  Church,  I  made  a  Church 
of  my  prison  and  I  sang  by  myself  nearly  all  the  Office 
at  our  ordinary  hours.  I  sang  also  what  the  Choir 
sings  at  High  Mass,  when  I  knew  it,  and  at  least  the 
Kyrie,  Gloria,  Credo,  Sanctus,  and  Agnus  Dei,  and 
I  mentally  followed  the  priest's  part  of  the  Sacrifice  of 
the  Mass,  for  a  Missal  had  been  lent  me.  So  I  spent 
nearly  an  hour  and  a  half  in  this  way,  and  had  not 
much  leisure  in  which  to  be  wearied  ;  my  morning  was 
as  well  filled  up  as  if  I  had  been  at  home.  I  made 
Processions  round  my  room,  holding  a  cross  in  my 
hand  and  singing  what  ought  to  be  sung.  On  Sundays 
I  asperged  all  the  wall  of  my  room,  saying,  "  Asperges 
me,"  and  my  intention  was  that  by  this  aspersion  every 


ANGELIQUE'S  EULE  OF  LIFE         337 

spiritual  malice  might  be  expelled,  for  I  feared  tempta- 
tion to  all,  so  much  the  more  as  I  had  no  one  to  defend 
me.  I  threw  holy  water  on  the  bed  to  expel  the  spirit 
of  sloth  ;  on  the  table  where  I  ate,  against  daintiness  ; 
on  the  side  of  the  bed  which  I  used  as  an  oratory,  to 
remove  all  distractions  ;  on  the  corner  of  the  room 
where  I  worked,  to  ensure  me  from  curiosity  and  from 
being-  too  much  set  on  my  work  ;  but  above  all  on  the 
door  of  my  room,  for  fear  lest  the  spirit  of  false  per- 
suasion should  enter  with  those  who  tried  to  bring  it, 
or  at  least,  lest  impatience  or  indiscretion  should  lead 
me  into  faults  when  my  solitude  was  broken  into  by 


some  vst." 


But  she  was  still  deprived  of  the  Eucharist.  She 
had  sent  a  note  to  the  Superior  begging  for  it  on 
Christmas  Day,  but  she  very  reluctantly  told  her  that 
the  Archbishop  would  not  consent.  Angelique  said 
later:  "I  thought  I  had  communicated  with  her  at 
this  great  Festival,  for  Jesus  Christ  is  not  limited  to 
one  single  means  of  communicating  His  grace,"  and  the 
Mother  showed  much  sympathy.  Angelique  lived,  at 
any  rate,  with  good  and  spiritual  religious.  She  con- 
tinued her  weary  imprisonment,  spending  the  day  in 
carefully  arranged  hours  of  prayer,  reading  St  Bernard, 
walking  up  and  down  her  room  reciting  a  Litany  of 
Intercession,  and  working  at  small  tasks  of  needlework. 
Madame  de  Rantzau  and  she  had  some  correspondence, 
and  they  also  had  occasional  conversations.  On 
Christmas  Day  Angelique  left  her  cell  and  was  present 
at  Mass,  and  was  sent  to  pray  before  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  during  the  sermon  at  Vespers.  And  when 
she  did  listen  to  sermons,  she  owns  that  she  was  edified 
and  helped.  For  indeed  it  is  lamentable  that  such  holy 
and  devout  people,  as  were  the  Port  Royalists  and  the 
great  rank  and  file  of  the  Jesuits,  could  not  have  met 
and  agreed  in  their  common  love  of  Christ.  It  is  nearly 
always  the  leaders  in  a  party  who  prevent  reconciliation. 
She  described  at  some  length  the  sermon  of  the  Jesuit 
on  grace,  and  her  sketch  of  it  shows  how  much  more 
Christians  agree  than  they  usually  think.  Angelique 
herself  is  surprised,  and  says  she  supposes  that  he  had 

y 


338  PEESECUTION 

more  light  than  most  of  them.  "  Grace  a  Dieu."  For 
Port  Royalists  lacked  that  grace  of  charity  when  it  was 
a  question  of  the  Company  of  Jesus.  A  little  more 
liberty  was  granted  to  Angelique  at  the  beginning  of 
the  year ;  but  she  grew  more  and  more  depressed  as 
to  Port  Royal,  and  saw  no  probable  end  to  their 
oppression. 

A  terrible  moment  came  on  Angelique,  when  she 
was  suddenly  told  that  one  of  the  Sisters  had  signed, 
and  she  was  given  to  understand  that  Mere  Agnes 
would  probably  do  so  also.  Poor  Angelique  passed  a 
night  of  prayers  and  tears,  feeling,  she  says,  like  St  Peter 
about  to  sink  ;  "but  at  last,  after  a  long  time  and  many 
tears  and  cries,  all  in  a  moment  God  gave  back  peace 
to  my  mind  by  a  strong  inclination  which  He  gave  me 
to  lean  on  the  truth  of  His  promises.''  And  she  went  to 
sleep  quite  peacefully,  certain  that  her  beloved  aunt, 
Mere  Agnes,  would  assuredly  not  be  of  those  who 
should  give  way. 

Angelique  had  many  conversations  with  the  Superior 
of  the  Community.  Angelique's  comments  are  not 
always  edifying  reading — she  is  apt  to  be  a  little  sharp, 
a  little  censorious.  She  has  a  remarkable  criticism  : 
"  Madame  de  Rantzau  was,  in  my  opinion,  the  last 
person  ever  to  allow  herself  to  be  instructed,  because 
she  was  far  too  much  possessed  with  the  idea  that  she 
knew  everything ;  and  it  would  seem  that  when  she 
came  out  from  heresy  and  schism,  she  fixed  her  Catho- 
licity firmly  on  the  absolute  belief  in  the  infallibility  of 
the  Pope,  and  said  of  it  .  .  .  that  should  this  foundation 
be  shaken,  our  faith  would  have  no  further  support ; .  .  . 
it  seems  that  people  who  are  brought  up  among  heretics, 
are  much  inclined  to  pass  from  one  extreme  to  another, 
and  leave  the  truth  which  lies  in  the  'Mean' ' 

The  Superior  seems  to  have  been  a  most  earnest 
religious,  kind,  affectionate,  and  full  of  devotion,  "qui 
prend  sur  elle  toute  la  charge  des  autres  pour  soulager 
celles  qui  ont  trop  de  travail,"  and  she  was  really 
anxious  to  be  as  kind  to  Angelique  as  she  possibly 
could  be,  in  every  way.  Angelique  was  clever  with  her 


MORE  NUNS  REMOVED  339 

hands,  and  modelled  little  figures  in  wax,  and  made  her- 
self really  loved  by  the  Superior. 

On  the  27th  of  November  the  two  leading  spirits, 
Soeur  Eustachie  and  Sceur  Christine,  and  also  Sceur 
Frangoise  de  Ste  Claire,  were  also'removed  from  Port 
Royal ;  the  Archbishop  came  early  in  the  day,  and 
appeared  as  they  were  holding  their  Chapter.  The 
Mother  Eugenie  was  called  out,  and  conducted  them 
in,  the  irrepressible  Sceur  Flavie  carrying  the  candles. 
Then  ensued  the  usual  scene,  a  long  address  from  the 
Archbishop,  various  attempts  to  soften  him,  and  the 
inevitable  proces  verbal,  which  habit  of  the  Port 
Royalists  especially  annoyed  M.  de  Perefixe. 

There  was  a  good  deal  of  confusion  at  the  departure, 
and  at  last  the  Sisters  insisted  on  all  taking  a  solemn 
oath  on  the  Gospels  that  they  were  not  disobedient, 
during  which  ceremony  the  Archbishop  kept  exclaiming : 
"  Cela  vous  servira  de  beaucoup,  voila  une  ceremonie  qui 
vous  sera  bien  utile,"  and  he  drove  away  amid  the  usual 
cries  and  prayers  for  the  Sacraments. 

Poor  helpless  nuns  ;  could  not  Antoine  Arnauld  have 
averted  all  this  misery  ?  Perhaps  not ;  and  it  is  not  un- 
exampled in  our  own  age  to  see  the  forces  of  persecution 
turned,  not  on  the  rich,  or  the  lax,  but  on  poor  and 
devout  servants  of  Christ,  for  some  supposed  error. 
Christine  Briquet's  faults  were,  as  Sainte  Beuve  says,  her 
impetuosity  and  her  youth.  She  was  a  clever  little  nun, 
and  Sainte  Beuve  thinks  that  she  would  probably  have 
gone  much  further  in  her  defence  of  freedom  of  thought, 
had  she  lived  a  century  later.  She  was  placed  in  the 
Convent  Sainte  Marie  in  Paris ;  at  this  period  she  was 
not  very  spiritual,  but  depth  and  devotion  came  in  later 
years.  Eustachie  de  Bregy,  in  her  Convent  of  the 
Ursulines,  enjoyed  occasional  fencing  matches  with  the 
Archbishop,  who  rather  played  on  her  weakness  for 
display. 

And  there  were  poor  Sisters  who  signed,  and  whose 
fall  sent  shudders  through  Port  Royal. 

In  the  meantime  an  idea  had  sprung  up  that  the 
whole  rebellious  Community  should  be  sent  to  Port 


340  PERSECUTION 

Royal  des  Champs,  the  Paris  House  abandoned,  and 
the  nuns  kept  in  the  country  in  a  sort  of  imprisonment. 
The  king  was  not  particularly  pleased  at  having  to  pay 
pensions  for  the  nuns  who  had  been  boarded  out  in  other 
Religious  Houses,  and  Mere  Eugenie,  on  being  consulted 
by  the  Queen  Mother,  highly  approved  of  the  scheme. 
Naturally  enough,  she  thought  it  would  be  pleasanter  to 
rule  over  an  undivided  Community.  Mere  Agnes  was 
consulted  and  at  once  agreed ;  but  some  of  the  nuns  of 
Port  Royal  de  Paris,  whose  spokeswoman  was  Sceur 
Genevieve  de  1' Incarnation,  after  reflection  saw  a  good 
many  objections.  After  all,  to  many  Port  Royal  de 
Paris  was  a  real  home.  For  them  Port  Royal  des 
Champs  had  no  associations,  and  even  Mere  Agnes 
was  not  to  them  what  she  had  been  to  an  older  genera- 
tion— the  generation  of  her  niece  Angelique  de  St 
Jean. 

Naturally,  those  who  were  waiting  to  bring  about 
this  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  nuns  were 
considerably  exasperated  by  this  reception,  and 
M.  Chamillard,  who  was  working  hard  in  their  behalf, 
complained  rather  bitterly  to  Mere  Agnes.  She  wrote 
to  the  Port  Royal  nuns  who  were  at  Paris  several  letters, 
which  were  at  once  gentle  and  conciliatory.  She  pointed 
out  that  this  change  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs  was 
not  meant  as  an  increase  of  punishment,  but  rather  as  a 
mitigation  of  their  sad  fate.  "  Je  regarde,"  she  writes, 
"notre  reunion  comme  le  plus  grand  avantage  qui  nous 
puisse  arriver."  She  seems  a  little  hurt  at  the  lack  of 
joy  shown  by  the  Sisters  at  the  prospect  of  this  reunion, 
and  indeed  the  said  Sisters  were  extraordinarily  exasper- 
ating to  M.  de  Perefixe.  Nevertheless,  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  sense  in  the  attitude  which  they  took  up ; 
they  did  not  think  it  was  wise  to  relinquish  their  Paris 
house,  unless  they  were  satisfied  that  they  could  return. 
To  leave  so  cherished  a  spot  in  the  possession  of  those 
Sisters  who  had  signed  the  Formulary  and  of  the 
strange  nuns  was  to  them  "une  espece  de  sacrilege." 

However,  after  several  characteristic  protests,  these 
scruples  were  overcome,  and  on  the  3rd  of  July,  1665,  the 


THE  CAPTIVE  NUNS  EETURN       341 

Archbishop  accompanied  by  several  clergy,  arrived,  read 
the  Community  a  short  lecture,  the  substance  of  which 
was  that  the  Sisters  should  set  out  at  once  for  Port 
Royal  des  Champs.  Thirty  departed  in  carriages 
provided  by  the  Archbishop,  and  at  their  head  marched 
Sceur  Genevieve  de  T Incarnation,  who,  as  she  came  out, 
advanced  towards  the  prelate,  knelt  down,  and  uttered  a 
solemn  protest.  A  few  Sisters  were  kept  back  for  a 
short  time,  partly  in  the  hope  that  they  might  be  won 
over,  and  partly  in  order  not  to  leave  the  Paris  House 
quite  at  the  mercy  of  the  submissive  members,  who  do 
not  seem  to  have  greatly  pleased  the  Archbishop. 

In  the  meantime,  the  order  had  gone  forth  that  those 
first  prisoners  exiled  in  other  convents  should  be  released. 
Angelique  de  St  Jean  has  left  us  a  full  account  of  her 
own  departure. 

She  had  just  begun  to  say  Compline,  when  the 
Superior  entered  her  room  and  said  that  one  of  the 
Archbishop's  principal  chaplains  was  waiting  for  her 
with  a  carriage.  Ange"lique  gives  a  graphic  account  of 
her  hasty  preparations  and  her  agonised  hunt  for  the 
manuscript  account  of  her  captivity  which  she  had 
written,  and  which  she  had  somehow  contrived  to  mislay 
and  only  discovered  at  the  last  moment.  She  seems  to 
have  won  the  heart  of  the  nuns,  and  the  Superior  came 
to  bid  her  most  tender  farewells.  And  so,  feeling 
not  a  little  alarmed,  Ange"lique  set  off  in  the  carriage  and 
was  driven  whither  she  knew  not.  There  was  another 
lady  in  the  carriage  who  observed  to  her  that  it  was  a 
most  extraordinary  hour  for  a  "  religieuse  "  to  be  taken 
away,  but  it  could  not  be  helped ;  the  Archbishop  had 
returned  very  late  from  St  Germain  (the  royal  residence). 
Angelique  replied :  "It  is  quite  right,  Madame,  that  we 
should  be  as  prompt  to  carry  out  the  commands  of  God 
as  others  are  in  the  execution  of  the  orders  of  the 
Court."  The  strange  lady  then  went  on  to  speak  of 
Port  Royal  in  laudatory  terms,  but  AngeUique  contrived 
to  cut  her  short  and  resumed  her  prayers. 

After  a  long  time  the  priest  reappeared,  conducting 
a  veiled  nun,  who  got  into  the  carriage.  "  I  could  not 


342  PERSECUTION 

see  her,"  writes  Ang61ique,  "but  I  had  no  time  to  doubt 
who  she  was  ;  she  threw  herself  on  my  neck,  saying- :  *  It 
is  my  aunt!' — *  What,  it  is  my  child!"  This  was  Chris- 
tine Briquet,  who  seems  to  have  adopted  Angelique  as  her 
aunt.  Not  another  word  did  they  say,  but  Angelique 
writes:  !<This  experience  helped  me  to  understand 
what  it  must  have  been  to  Mary  Magdalene  when  she 
heard  Jesus  Christ  calling  her  by  her  own  name." 
What  depth  of  agony,  what  heights  of  joy  those  simple 
words  reveal !  And  little  Christine  herself  writes  that  it 
was  easy  for  her  to  recognise  that  by  God's  infinite 
mercy  she  had  regained  her  whom  He  had  given  back 
to  Christine,  "the  one  whom  He  had  given  me  to  en- 
lighten my  steps,  and  teach  me  to  walk  in  the  path  of 
the  commandments  and  in  truth."  Well  does  M.  Sainte 
Beuve  call  these  words  magnificent,  and  full  of  insight — 
they  give  us  exactly  the  conception  of  Mere  Angelique 
de  Saint  Jean,  which  the  second  Port  Royal  had 
formed. 

On  the  carriage  drove  in  the  darkness  and  the  not  too 
safe  streets  of  Paris  into  which  the  Superior  of  Angeli- 
que's  Convent  of  exile  had  been  unwilling  to  send  her  at 
that  hour.1  The  travellers  proceeded  beyond  the  gate 
of  the  city,  which  was  already  locked,  and  out  into  the 
country.  By-and-by  they  stopped  at  the  door  of  a 
Convent,  and  were  kept  waiting  a  long  time.  Presently 
the  door  opened,  and  they  saw  several  nuns  awaiting 
them,  who,  having  gone  to  bed,  had  been  obliged  to  get 
up  and  dress,  "n'ayant  pas  la  commodite"  que  nous 
avons  de  ne  deshabiller  jamais,"  Angelique  naively 
remarks. 

These  luxurious  people,  having  made  their  toilettes, 
received  Mere  Angelique  with  extreme  kindness,  and 
after  embracing  her  two  sisters,  who,  poor  things,  had 
signed,  and  who  were  full  of  contrition,  she  went  up- 

1  Boileau  says : 

"  Les  voleurs  a  1'instant  s'emparent  de  la  ville. 
Le  bois  le  plus  funeste  et  le  moins  frequente" 
Est,  au  prix  de  Paris,  un  lieu  de  sureteV' 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  POET  EOYAL  343 

stairs  to  her  beloved  aunt  Mere  Agnes.  They  spent 
some  time  in  this  Convent,  waiting"  for  another  carriage, 
which  arrived  in  a  few  hours,  and  then  they  pro- 
ceeded on  their  journey. 

The  party  now  consisted  of  Mere  Agnes,  Mere 
Angelique  and  her  sisters,  and  Christine  Briquet.  It 
was  a  long  journey,  some  eighteen  miles.  As  soon  as 
they  had  started,  Prime,  and  the  beautiful  Itinerarium, 
or  Office,  to  be  said  before  or  on  a  journey,  were  recited. 
Then  Angelique  took  a  Bible  and  asked  Mere  Agnes 
to  open  it  at  random — "un  sort  sacre."  Agnes's  eye  fell 
on  this  passage:  "Vae  pastoribus  qui  disperdunt" — 
"Woe  unto  the  shepherds  that  destroy  and  scatter  the 
sheep  of  my  pasture."1 

Angdique  tells  the  story  herself,  and  writes  : 

"  Can  one  doubt  that  there  is  a  Providence  in  such 
apparently  chance  lightings  on  certain  passages  ?  " 

And  at  last  the  exiles  reached  their  haven,  the  first 
Port  Royal,  the  true  home  of  the  devoted  Community. 
They  were  received  by  the  Prioress,  the  Mere  du  Fargis, 
and  Angelique  writes  :  "  We  thus  ended  our  journey  in 
safety,  and  arrived  all  together,  in  this  deserted  and 
desolated  house  ;  which  seemed  at  first  so  lonely,  for  we 
only  saw  two  of  our  old  servants  coming  to  meet  us, 
instead  of  the  people  who  used  to  meet  us,  when  in 
former  days  we  arrived  in  smaller  numbers. 

"  There  were  no  bells,  no  bonfires^  as  in  those  days 
when  Mere  Angelique  returned.  But  it  was  even  better 
to  see  in  one  moment  the  old  Church  filled  with  Sisters, 
who,  by  the  colour  of  their  habit,  seemed  to  symbolize 
that  they  had  washed  their  robes  in  the  Blood  of  the 
Lamb,  me  Blood  symbolized  by  the  red  crosses. 

"  We  threw  ourselves  all  together  on  our  knees  at  the 
feet  of  the  good  Shepherd  who  had  gathered  together 
His  scattered  sheep." 

Mere  du  Fargis  had  the  true  Port  Royal  calmness 
and  presence  of  mind,  with  all  the  high-bred  courtesy  of 
a  great  lady.  She  made  a  formal  protest  which  some- 

1  Jer.  xxiii.  i. 


344  PEESECUTION 

what  surprised  the  peaceful  M&re  Agn&s.  The  Com- 
munity were  not  long  left  in  doubt  as  to  what  was  to  be 
their  fate.  They  were  to  be  as  prisoners  in  their  own 
house.  The  confessor  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs  was 
compelled  to  leave,  and  as  his  successor,  a  young  priest 
from  Savoy  was  introduced,  who  was  almost  illiterate, 
and  who  had  not  yet  said  his  first  Mass!  In  vain  did 
the  Prioress  remonstrate,  all  she  could  gain  was  the 
presence  of  another  and  younger  priest,  also  a  Savoyard. 

On  the  evening  of  this  3rd  of  July  1665,  a  number  of 
guards  commanded  by  M.  de  Saint  Laurent  arrived 
and  put  Port  Royal  into  a  state  of  siege.  Even  the 
little  garden  where  the  poor  Sisters  were  accustomed 
to  walk  was  locked  up.  The  servants  and  the  faithful 
M.  Charles  were  forbidden,  on  pain  of  hanging,  to 
carry  any  communication  from  the  nuns  to  the  out- 
side world. 

Some  relaxation  of  this  horrible  surveillance  was 
obtained  to  the  extent  of  allowing  the  poor  nuns  at 
times  to  walk  in  their  own  garden.  M.  de  Saint 
Laurent  was  suspicious  and  always  on  the  watch ; 
he  sometimes  spent  an  hour  or  two  of  the  night  under  a 
tree,  hoping  to  surprise  someone  from  the  outside 
world  communicating  with  the  Community. 

It  is  remarkable  how  completely  the  Court  was 
possessed  with  the  idea  that  Port  Royal  was  a  centre 
of  plots  against  the  established  order  of  things. 

It  was  suspected,  not  unjustly,  that  M.  Antoine 
Arnauld  and  the  rest  of  "  ces  messieurs"  would  try 
their  best  to  keep  up  the  hearts  of  their  faithful  followers. 
But  what  else  was  suspected?  It  is  difficult  to  realise 
the  virulent  hatred  of  Louis  XIV.  for  any  body  or  any 
movement  which  dared  to  organise  itself  independently 
of  him — of  the  Court.  How  fatal  this  monstrous 
egoism  proved  to  France  is  a  matter  of  history.  The 
best  and  noblest  of  her  children  were  driven  from  her, 
until  at  last  the  hour  of  vengeance  came,  not  ushered 
in  by  Psalms,  by  the  chant  of  "  Exurgat  Deus,"  but 
by  blood  and  slaughter  and  the  cry  of  "Ecrasez 
1'Infame." 


LIFE  AT  POET  ROYAL  DES  CHAMPS  345 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  misery  of  these  sad 
days.  The  Community  did  not  at  first  lose  heart. 
They  received  with  great  joy  the  Abbess,  who  had 
been  at  the  Convent  of  the  Daughters  of  Sainte  Marie 
de  Meaux,  and  some  of  the  Sisters  from  Paris  who 
had  signed  and  who  now  repented.  One  after  another, 
at  the  Chapter  held  after  their  arrival,  knelt  and 
confessed  her  error,  imploring  forgiveness ;  but  the 
climax  was  reached  when  the  saintly  and  beloved  Mere 
Agnes  knelt  down  before  the  Altar  and  confessed  that 
she  had  regarded  the  matter  of  the  signature  too  much 
in  a  purely  indifferent  light. 

"  I  consider,"  she  went  on,  "our  re-union  not  as  a 
consequence  of  my  prayers,  or  as  a  reward  for  my 
goodness,  but  as  a  help  which  He  vouchsafes  to  my 
weakness." 

Several  other  Sisters  accused  themselves  of  this 
terrible  fault — "indifference."  Poor  people — so  harassed, 
so  brave,  so  mercilessly  persecuted. 

Three  months  were  granted  to  the  unfortunate 
Community  to  think  over  their  ways,  and  as  usual  they 
drew  up  a  protest. 

The  Archbishop  completely  lost  patience.  "  Haven't 
you  seen  that  Mere  Prieure,"  he  said  to  one  of  his 
Clergy,  "that  Du  Fargis,  she  treats  me  as  if  I  were 
a  small  boy — I  will  never  speak  to  her  again  ;  next 
Friday  I  will  excommunicate  them."  And  excommuni- 
cated they  were.  After  the  sentence  was  read,  the 
Sisters  exclaimed  that  they  appealed  to  every  tribunal, 
and  above  all  to  our  Lord. 

And  now  a  very  miserable  time  began.  Spied  on 
by  guards,  worn  out,  many  of  them  with  illness,  cut 
off  from  the  Sacraments  (this  deprivation  did  not 
extend  to  the  lay  Sisters,  and  probably  not  a  few  choir 
Sisters  approached  the  Altar  in  the  habit  of  their 
humbler  colleagues) ;  they  had  left  to  them  one 
helper,  M.  Hamon,  the  well-beloved  physician.  He 
was  all  that  anyone  not  a  priest  could  be ;  he  com- 
forted, exhorted,  composed  beautiful  little  meditations, 
assisted  the  dying.  Few  characters  in  the  Port 


346  PEESECUTION 

Royal  roll  of  saints  are  more  beautiful  and  simple 
than  his. 

A  few  quotations  from  him  will  show  how  deeply 
spiritual  he  was.  After  saying  how  great  is  their  loss 
in  that  their  spiritual  guides  have  been  withdrawn,  he 
writes  :  "  We  agree  that  you  have  suffered  a  great  loss. 
But  you  must  also  agree  that  you  have  received  a 
greater  joy.  For  man  cannot  surpass  God  in  anything, 
and  least  of  all  in  generosity,  in  greatness.  They  have 
taken  away  your  fathers,  but  have  they  taken  away  the 
God  of  your  fathers  ?  Deus  Patrum  Nostrorum — when 
you  lost  your  fathers,  He  became  afresh  your  Father 
in  a  very  special  way.  He  is  your  Father  because  you 
are  the  daughters  and  the  spouses  of  His  Son,  but  He 
is  your  Father  also  in  another  way  because  you  have 
no  other. 

"  He  does  (this  is  a  wonderful  thought)  now  through 
Himself  what  He  is  accustomed  to  do  through  His 
Ministers,  and  you  receive  directly  from  Himself  what 
you  are  used  to  receive  from  their  hands.  Although 
you  have  no  priest,  have  you  not  the  High  Priest  and 
Bishop  of  your  souls,  who  is  your  spouse?  Can  He  fail 
you?" 

He  has  a  word  about  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  who  did 
not  fret  himself  on  account  of  Philip's  departure.  H  e 
did  not  put  his  trust  in  the  possession  of  the  Evangelist, 
but  in  the  Gospel  (Evangel),  which  remained  graven 
in  his  heart  and  which  filled  him  with  joy. 

He  quotes  St  Francois  de  Sales,  who  remarks  some- 
where that  with  so  many  more  Communions,  and 
absolutions,  and  sermons,  and  books,  and  outward  aids 
in  general,  the  men  of  his  generation  were  far  inferior 
in  piety  to  the  early  hermits.  "We  do  not,"  Hamon 
says,  "seek  piety  where  it  is  really,  and  we  look  for 
it  where  it  is  not.  We  make  it  consist  in  speaking 
about  God,  in  hearing  about  Him,  rather  than  in  doing 
what  He  has  ordered  us  to  do  and  in  obeying  the 
Commandments.  We  must  not  say  then  :  *  Who  will 
nourish  us?'  For  we  have  always  Jesus  Christ, 
Who  is  Himself  the  Bread  of  Life,  and  the  High 


M.   HAMON  347 

Priest  Who  will  distribute  it  Himself  if  men  are 
lacking. 

"We  shall  live  by  the  union  which  we  shall  have 
with  the  whole  Church,  which  proceeds  from  the  Spirit 
of  the  Father  and  from  the  influence  of  the  Head  who 
never  fails  any  of  His  members." 

There  is  much  more  of  the  same  gentle,  deeply 
spiritual  thought.  M.  Hamon  also  wrote  a  treatise  on 
the  Principles  of  Conduct  in  Defence  of  Truth  ;  in  this 
he  shows  that  clear  insight  into  principles  which  is  so 
striking  a  characteristic  of  his.  The  great  point  on 
which  he  insists  is  the  absolute  ignoring  of  one's 
personal  point  of  view  (a  counsel  of  perfection  little 
regarded  in  controversy.)  He  cites  many  examples 
from  early  Church  history.  He  then  asks  whether 
reserve  is  permitted  in  our  witness  to  truth,  and  replies 
that  humility  and  simplicity  will  answer  this  question. 
And  he  goes  on  to  discuss  courage  and  its  opposite 
quality,  rashness. 

"  Prayer,  silence,  and  hope  in  God  are  our  whole 
strength ;  we  must  sum  up  in  these  our  defence,  our 
justification." 

The  whole  treatise  breathes  this  same  spirit.  "In 
quietness  and  in  confidence  shall  be  your  strength." 
Hamon's  views  on  obedience  are  very  clear.  Anything 
like  blind  obedience  is  hateful  to  him ;  he  sees  quite 
plainly  when  to  obey  ceases  to  be  a  duty,  and  yet  he  is 
quite  clear  as  to  the  general  obligation  of  obedience. 

There  is  also  a  book  of  his,  Pratique  de  la  Priere 
Conhnuelle,  ou  Sentimens  d'une  Ame  vraiment  touchde 
de  Dieu,  which  is  very  beautiful.  It  is  redolent  with 
that  calm,  uplifted  spirit,  characteristic  of  some  of  those 
who  live  very  near  to  God.  Hamon  speaks  in  the 
words  of  Holy  Scripture ;  he  lives  in  the  atmosphere 
of  the  Psalms,  of  the  Gospels ;  he  lives  also  in  the 
atmosphere  of  Sacramental  Grace,  in  the  sense  of  the 
extraordinary  and  unique  blessing  conveyed  in  the 
Eucharist,  which  one  misses  so  much  in  Protestantism. 
He  seems  as  one  turns  over  his  pages  to  be  very 
much  akin  to  us  of  the  English  Church,  He  seems 


348  PERSECUTION 

to  speak  the  language  of  many  of  our  most  beloved 
saints  and  teachers. 

"O  my  soul,"  he  writes  in  a  meditation  on  Death, 
"  Jesus  Christ  is  thy  life ;  if  thou  wouldest  love  any 
other  life  than  His,  fear  death,  but  if  death  has  lost 
the  dominion  it  had  over  us  and  is  itself  the  slave  of 
Jesus  Christ .  .  .  shall  they  fear  death  who  obey  Jesus 
Christ?.  .  . 

"Jesus  Christ,  who  has  chosen  the  time  and  circum- 
stances of  His  death,  will  choose  the  time  and  the 
circumstances  of  ours.  .  .  . 

"O  God,  transfer  the  agony  of  our  death  to  the 
time  of  our  life,  so  that  finding  travail  in  life,  we  may 
only  rest  in  death." 

Later  on,  in  a  prayer  to  our  Lord,  he  says  : 

"We  deserve  nothing  without  Thee,  but  we  deserve 
everything  in  Thee  and  through  Thee." 

The  prayers  are  very  varied  intercessions,  acts  of 
love,  contrition,  prayers  for  various  graces  and  gifts 
of  the  Spirit  which  are  often  founded  on  passages  of 
Holy  Scripture. 

"Lord,"  he  prays,  recalling  Ps.  xxvii.,  "Thou  art 
my  light,  be  also  my  salvation,  so  that  I  may  listen  to 
Thy  words  with  fear  and  accomplish  them  with  joy, 
and  that  I  may  adore  them  at  all  times  with  fear  and 
joy,  for  they  are  the  words  of  eternal  life  in  which  we 
find  Thee." 

There  are  some  lovely  words  of  prayer  for  strength 
against  the  world — which  have  a  sad  intensity  when  one 
remembers  how  hardly  the  world  bore  on  Port  Royal. 

Not  less  beautiful  are  the  prayers  before  and  after 
reading  Holy  Scripture.  They  bring  out  what  is  the 
motive  for  all  meditation,  the  hearing  of  God's  voice. 
There  are  prayers  before  and  after  Holy  Communion, 
full  of  that  sober,  that  deep,  heart-felt,  transforming 
awe  and  thankfulness  and  joy  which  breathe  in  the 
poem  for  the  Holy  Communion  in  the  Christian  Year, 


M.   HAMON  349 

The  beloved  physician  who  watched  by  many  a 
holy  deathbed  evidently  experienced  the  fear  of  and 
shrinking-  from  death  which  come  to  many.  He  prays 
much  about  death. 

"  Lord  Jesus,  Who  didst  will  to  die,  so  that  we  may 
never  die,  but  may  pass  from  death  to  life,  remember 
Thy  death  in  the  hour  of  my  death,  when  I  can 
remember  neither  myself  nor  Thee.  Let  Thy  death 
which  takes  away  the  sins  of  the  world  defend  and 
protect  my  death,  which  is  the  penalty  of  sin." 

Following  this  is  a  meditation  on  the  weapons  which 
enable  the  Christian  to  overcome  the  evil  one.  It  is 
all  so  simple,  and  yet  so  heart-searching;  he  too  has 
held  up  the  Way  of  Perfection,  he  too  longs  for  growth 
in  holiness. 

Hamon  has  much  devotion  for  the  Holy  Angels 
and  the  Saints,  and  his  devotion  is  never  exaggerated, 
never  jars,  never  speaks  of  anything  but  that  fellowship 
for  which  we  praise  God  in  the  Te  Deum,  but  which 
so  many  of  us  forget  entirely. 

He  has  several  Litanies  in  honour  of  particular 
Saints,  and  one  is  devoted  to  holy  widows. 

He  drew  up  some  rules  for  a  holy  life,  which  are  at 
once  simple  and  profound,  and  for  each  day  in  the  week 
he  has  drawn  up  an  Eucharistic  Litany,  founded  on 
extracts  from  the  Fathers,  and  of  course  containing 
aspirations  and  thanksgivings  and  acts  of  adoration 
very  familiar  to  us  of  the  English  Church,  through 
the  labour  of  those  great  teachers  who  have  brought 
back  to  us  of  modern  time  treasures  contained  in 
ancient  collects,  liturgies,  and  homilies. 

"  Heavenly  bread  which  the  Heavenly  Father 
commands  for  His  children,  who  ought  to  be  heavenly 
themselves  that  they  may  ask  it,"  he  says  ; 

for  the  note  of  the  need  of  correspondence  is  struck 
throughout  everything  he  writes ;  he  is  very  fond  of 
that  aspect  of  the  Eucharist  which  brings  out  that  it  is 
the  "  Food  of  Immortality." 

Hamon  prays  against  the  besetting  sin  of  so  many 


350  PEESECUTION 

"religious,"  excessive  sadness.  "Give  us  the  grace  to 
believe  that  often  sadness  is  no  less  an  error  and  an 
illusion  than  joy  may  be."  There  are  some  beautiful 
words  of  prayer  written  in  grief. 

Space  forbids  larger  quotations.  Hamon  is  a 
beautiful  example  of  Port  Royal  piety — sober,  manly, 
devoted,  resigned,  and  full  of  love. 

Hamon  was  indeed  a  stay  and  support  in  these  sad 
days.  Forbidden  to  say  their  Offices  aloud,  the  nuns 
arranged  to  say  them  each  by  herself  in  Church,  and 
daily  recited  the  entire  Psalter  with  a  special  intention 
for  each  day. 

On  Sunday  the  Intercession  was  for  the  whole 
Church,  and  for  all  Kings  and  Princes :  on  Monday 
for  the  Pope  and  all  Bishops :  on  Tuesday  for  the 
conversion  of  Jews,  Turks,  infidels,  heretics,  and  for 
missionaries  :  on  Wednesday  for  the  faithful,  living  and 
departed :  on  Thursday  for  their  own  Community :  on 
Friday  for  sinners,  for  the  dying,  for  all  afflicted  persons  : 
on  Saturday  for  the  grace  of  increased  detachment  and 
for  the  relations  of  all  the  Community. 

We  have  a  tolerably  minute  journal  of  the  events  of 
this  sad  time,  the  protests  which  the  unhappy  Com- 
munity drew  up,  the  bickerings  with  the  confessor,  M. 
du  Saugey,  who  was  not  at  all  an  ill-disposed  priest, 
and  who  must  have  found  his  position  extremely 
disagreeable. 

At  Easter  the  Community  sent  an  eloquent  and 
touching  letter  to  the  Archbishop,  pleading  for  a 
Communion.  With  some  trouble  the  letter  was 
conveyed  to  Paris.  The  Archbishop  replied  that  he 
would  send  some  learned  and  pious  divines  to  interview 
the  Community,  and  if  these  persons  thought  good  they 
might  communicate  the  nuns.  There  was  the  usual 
discussion,  and  a  very  cautious  answer  was  sent  to  the 
Archbishop,  which  considerably  displeased  him ;  he 
returned  a  reply  which  reached  Port  Royal  on  Good 
Friday,  to  the  effect  that  they  sorely  needed  humility. 
During  the  season  of  Lent,  Mere  Agnes  aided 
the  Sisters  by  conducting  their  meditations,  and 


MADAME  DE    SAINT  ANGE          351 

on  this  Good  Friday  she  spoke  on  the  Passion  for  more 
than  an  hour  and  a  half. 

We  must  pass  over  several  months.  In  July  one  of 
the  Sisters,  Margaret  de  Sainte  Gertrude,  fell  ill,  and,  as 
she  was  evidently  dying1,  the  good  M.  Hamon  begged  that 
the  last  Sacraments  might  be  administered.  In  vain. 
No  help  from  the  ministers  of  the  Church  could  be 
obtained,  and  M.  Hamon  himself  and  the  Community 
did  all  they  could  by  their  fervent  prayers  to  speed  their 
Sister's  soul. 

She  died,  and  no  Requiem  Mass  was  said. 

The  Bishop  of  Alet,  who  was  one  of  the  episcopal 
friends  of  Port  Royal,  wrote  to  a  common  friend  of  his 
and  of  Port  Royal  that  each  day  as  he  said  Mass  he 
offered  up  thanks  for  the  firmness  of  the  devoted  little 
band. 

There  was  much  sickness  at  Port  Royal  at  that  time ; 
the  Sisters  were  strictly  confined  within  their  walls,  and 
as  they  would  not  give  any  promise  not  to  communicate 
with  the  outside  world,  their  imprisonment  was  very 
close.  However,  in  time,  in  consideration  of  the  great 
heat,  the  nuns  were  allowed  to  go  into  their  own  little 
garden.  Several  more  Sisters  fell  ill,  and  on  their  death- 
beds were  harassed  by  exhortations  to  sign. 

After  a  while  the  Archbishop  said  to  one  of  his  clergy, 
M.  Hilaire,  who  was  constantly  at  Port  Royal,  that  he 
was  to  tell  the  Port  Royalists  from  henceforth  not  to  ask 
for  confessors  when  they  were  ill,  unless  indeed  they  had 
changed  their  minds  as  to  the  signature. 

It  was  in  this  year  that  the  Sister  Anne  Eugenie 
died,  she  who  had  been  known  in  the  world  as  Madame 
de  Saint  Ange.  She  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of 
the  Port  Royalists.  A  sweet,  gentle,  peaceful,  elect  soul, 
more  tender,  more  gracious  and  winning  than  even  some 
of  les  notres. 

Madame  de  Saint  Ange  was  the  daughter  of  the 
Governor  of  Nogent-le-Roi,  a  town  near  Dreux.  She 
was  born  at  Nogent,  and  grew  up  in  an  atmosphere  of 
affection  and  of  popularity.  From  her  very  early  years 
she  was  deeply  religious,  one  of  those  who  never  lose 


352  PERSECUTION 

their  baptismal  innocence,  and  who  cannot  recall  the 
moment  when  they  first  realised  that  they  wished  to 
please  God.  Reading  St  Theresa  not  unnaturally  made 
the  child  long1  to  tread  in  the  great  Saint's  steps  and 
become  a  Carmelite  nun.  But  her  father  wished  her  to 
marry,  and  gave  her  to  M.  de  St  Ange,  who  held  the 
post  of  premier  Maitre  d '  HStel  at  the  Court. 

Madame  de  Saint  Ange  was  married  at  fifteen  and 
began  at  once  a  life  of  devotion  and  great  self-discipline : 
she  inspired  Anne  of  Austria  with  a  great  liking  for 
herself,  but  she  seems  never  to  have  been  at  all 
fascinated  by  Court  gaieties  and  to  have  avoided  royal 
favours  as  much  as  possible.  Her  husband's  affairs 
were  in  confusion,  and  she  prudently  retired  from  the 
world  until  they  were  in  some  measure  restored  to 
order.  It  was  while  she  was  staying  with  her  father 
that  she  formed  her  life-long  friendship  with  M. 
d'Andilly.  He,  of  course,  spoke  to  her  much  of  St 
Cyran  and  of  Port  Royal,  and  induced  her  on  her 
return  to  Paris  to  let  him  introduce  her  to  his 
renowned  sister  Mere  Angelique,  and  to  M.  de  St 
Cyran.  At  first  Mere  Angelique  treated  poor 
Madame  de  Saint  Ange  almost  rudely,  but  only  at  first. 
She  soon  saw  the  sincerity  of  the  young  and  beauti- 
ful woman  and  aided  her  in  every  way.  Indeed,  for  some 
years  M.  d'Andilly  placed  one  of  his  daughters,  Mdlle. 
de  Luzanci,  under  her  care,  for  the  girl  could  not  then 
make  up  her  mind  to  become  a  nun,  though  in  the  end 
she  did  embrace  the  Religious  Life.  St  Cyran  wrote 
many  letters  to  Madame  de  Saint  Ange,  and  her  boy 
was  placed  in  one  of  the  Petites  Ecoles. 

Her  married  life  seems  to  have  been  very  happy,  and 
her  husband,  of  whom  we  are  not  told  very  much,  seems 
to  have  gladly  allowed  her  to  be  charitable,  and  to  make 
her  house  a  place  of  shelter  for  those  people  whose 
minds  were  turned  towards  retirement  from  the  world. 
D'Andilly's  son  spent  some  time  with  her  before  he  went 
to  Port  Royal. 

There  is  a  touching  story  of  a  village  near  Saint 
Ange  being  devastated  with  some  infectious  disease,  and 


MADAME  DE  SAINT  ANGE  353 

the  brave  young  chatelaine  refusing  to  run  away.  She 
sent  for  doctors  and  remedies  and  all  needful  things,  and 
waited  until  the  outbreak  had  subsided. 

M.  de  Saint  Ange  was  much  influenced  by  his  wife, 
and  resolved  in  1651  to  sell  his  post  at  Court  and  retire 
to  his  country  home  in  the  manner  of  Port  Royal. 
Two  months  after  his  retirement  he  died  quite  suddenly, 
and  this  death  was  a  great  grief  to  his  still  youthful 
wife.  M.  d'Andilly,  the  ever  faithful  friend,  went  to  see 
her,  under  strict  commands  from  Mere  Angelique  to  say 
nothing  about  Port  Royal.  But  Madame  de  Saint 
Ange  herself  told  M.  d'Andilly  that  she  longed  to  enter 
the  Religious  Life  at  Port  Royal  but  did  not  see  her 
way  to  do  so.  Her  boy  needed  her.  But  in  a  very 
few  months  the  young  Saint  Ange1  himself  joined  the 
Solitaires,  and  his  mother  was  now  free.  With  Mdlle. 
de  Luzanci  she  entered  Port  Royal,  and  in  two  years, 
after  a  novitiate  marked  by  the  most  touching  docility, 
she  was  professed. 

When  the  evil  days  of  persecution  came,  Anne 
Eugenie  was  exiled  to  a  Convent  of  the  Visitation  at 
Chaillot,  a  village  near  Paris.2 

Here  Anne  Eugenie  met  with  much  kindness,  but 
nothing  could  induce  her  to  sign.  She  returned 
with  the  others  to  Port  Royal.  It  could  be  seen 
that  the  Sceur  Anne  Eugenie's  health  was  rapidly 
failing,  and  equally  that  she  was  daily  growing  more 
simple,  more  recollected,  more  truly  humble,  and 
silent. 

M.  de  Perefixe,  who  had  strictly  forbidden  any 
communication  to  be  held  with  the  outer  world  by  the 
unfortunate  Community,  sent  with  strange  cruelty  a 
letter  from  poor  Madame  de  Saint  Ange's  ne'er-do-weel 
son.  She  sent  an  answer  through  the  Archbishop,  and 
very  soon  afterwards,  in  September  1667,  lay  down  to 
die.  She  was  ill  for  three  months,  and  no  word  of 
impatience,  no  murmur  ever  escaped  her. 


He  was  called  cTEspinoy.     The  eldest  son  was  a  mauvais  sujet,  and 
his  wife  was  not  much  better. 

2  It  was  to  this  Convent  that  Mademoiselle  de  la  Valliere  retired. 


354  PERSECUTION 

She  became  much  worse  in  December,  and  the 
Archbishop  sent  M.  Bail  to  her ;  in  vain  did  he  torment 
the  dying  Sister  to  yield  and  sign ;  he  left  her  at  last 
and  returned  to  Ang^lique  de  St  Jean,  who  persuaded 
him  to  hear  the  confessions  of  the  lay  Sisters,  and  then 
spoke  to  him  in  no  measured  terms  of  the  grief  which 
she  and  every  Sister  felt  at  seeing-  their  dear  Anne 
Eugenie  treated  in  such  a  way. 

M.  Bail  quite  broke  down.  "  Don't  distress  your- 
selves, be  comforted,  she  will  lose  nothing.  I  am  sure 
of  it,  if  she  is  so  entirely  in  God,  as  I  think  she  is — 
for  she  is  a  holy  soul,  and  God  will  increase  His  spiritual 
consolations  to  make  up  for  those  which  she  does  not 
receive  from  the  Church."  This  was  tolerably  plain 
speaking;  it  shows  that  an  honest  mind  could  not 
but  see  how  devoid  of  ground  the  charge  of  heresy 
was. 

Ang£lique  de  Saint  Jean  replied  that  she  had  no 
doubt  all  would  be  well  with  her  Sister,  but  that  he 
(M.  Bail)  would  have  to  answer  to  His  Lord,  as  well 
as  to  the  Archbishop,  as  to  how  he  had  used  his  powers 
to  bind  and  loose. 

But  it  was  no  use,  M.  Bail  went  away  and  left  the 
Sister  to  die  without  the  last  Sacraments. 

M.  d'Espinoy,  the  second  son,  contrived  to  send  a 
letter  begging  for  his  dying  mother's  blessing,  and 
all  he  said  about  himself  comforted  her  greatly, 
so  that,  as  she  said  herself,  her  grief  was  swallowed  up 
in  joy. 

The  Community  gathered  round  their  dying  Sister 
and  the  prayers  were  said ;  she  herself  praying  that  if 
the  Peace  of  the  Church  were  granted,  she  might  be 
the  last  to  die  without  the  Sacraments.  "  And  indeed," 
writes  the  historian,  "  no  one  else  died  until  after  the 
Peace  of  the  Church." 

A  Requiem  was  said  for  her  at  the  Church  of  the 
Augustines  in  Paris;  M.  d'Espinoy  arranged  it,  and 
the  Archbishop  himself  told  the  young  man  that  his 
mother  was  a  saint,  and  he  (the  Archbishop)  would 
willingly  be  in  her  place. 


AGNfeS'S  COUEAGE  355 

M.  d'Espinoy  died  in  1679,  and  was  buried  near 
his  mother. 

During"  this  time  Mere  Agnes  wrote  several  letters 
which  breathe  her  usual  lofty  spirit  of  resignation  and  of 
calm  trust.  Writing-  to  M.  de  Sevigne,  she  says  :  "  What 
you  tell  us,  that  men  in  depriving  us  of  every  spiritual 
privilege  only  give  us  more  ways  of  uniting  ourselves  to 
God,  is  a  word  of  great  comfort  which  is  enough  to 
supply  all  our  lackings.  I  beg  you  very  humbly  to 
pray  to  God  that  He  will  write  it  on  my  heart,  for  we 
ought  not  to  desire  anything  save  that  holy  union  of 
our  will  to  His,  which  implies,  as  you  rightly  say,  a 
separation  from  oneself,  which  is  something  I  have  not 
yet  asked." 

She  wrote  to  Antoine  Arnauld  (for  the  poor  prisoners 
found  means  of  communicating  with  their  friends) 
that  they  had  not  refused  to  receive  the  confessors 
whom  Archbishop  de  Perefixe  had  proposed  to  send 
them  for  Easter,  but  that  she  regarded  this  proposal  of 
his  as  being  to  some  extent  a  trap.  For  if  these  new 
arrivals  "should  exact  nothing  else  but  that  we  should 
pray  God  to  grant  us  light  when  we  communicate,  that 
we  may  know  what  we  should  do,  I  should  fear  that 
to  be  a  turning  from  our  way ;  we  are  not  permitted 
to  have  any  doubt  but  that  we  should  do  well  if  we 
remained  in  the  same  mind  in  which  we  have  always 
been." 

She  goes  on  to  say  that  she  might  just  as  well  pray 
to  be  shown  whether  Catholicism  or  Calvinism  were  the 
best,  or  if  it  were  a  matter  of  obligation  to  keep  God's 
Commandments!  The  Port  Royalists  were  for  the 
most  part  fully  persuaded  in  their  own  minds. 

Among  Mere  Agnes's  letters  there  is  a  most  beautiful 
exhortation  to  the  Community  on  the  spirit  in  which 
the  command  to  abstain  from  saying  their  Office  aloud 
should  be  taken.  It  is  too  long  to  quote  entirely,  but 
one  or  two  sentences  must  be  given.  Agnes  says  that 
the  Community's  voice  of  praise  is  hushed  ;  they  must 
adore  God  in  silence;  and  yet  "knowing  that  humility 
penetrates  to  Heaven,  we  may  dare  to  hope  that  we 


356  PEESECUTION 

may  be  admitted  even  to  the  throne  of  God,  and  may 
share  that  great  Voice  of  Thunder  from  which  these 
holy  words  re-echo :  '  Fear  God,  ye  that  are  His  Saints, 
and  worship  the  Lord  Who  has  made  Heaven  and  earth, 
because  His  Judgment  has  come.'" 


CHAPTER  XVI 

EVIL  DAYS   (1664-1669) 

M.  SINGLIN  had  been  taken  away  from  his  little  band  of 
devoted  friends,  and  from  the  souls  whom  he  was 
guiding,  on  the  1 7th  of  April  1664.  He  had  been  ex- 
hausted by  the  fasts  and  services  of  Lent,  and  on  the 
evening  of  the  i6th  of  April  he  lay  down  on  his  bed, 
never  to  rise  again.  He  realised  the  nature  of  his 
illness,  but  none  of  those  around  him  seemed  to  do  so. 
M.  du  Fosse  and  M.  Fontaine  both  thought  that  he  was 
only  over-tired.  M.  du  Fosse  sat  up  that  night  and  called 
M.  Fontaine  early  in  the  morning  of  the  1 7th  of  April. 
"  About  six  o'clock,"  says  the  faithful  Nicholas,  "  I  was 
supporting  him  in  my  arms  while  he  drank  some  soup, 
and  sucked  a  slice  of  orange,  when  suddenly  the  house- 
keeper, who  was  standing  at  the  foot  of  the  bed,  ex- 
claimed :  '  The  Father  is  dying ! '  and  at  that  very 
moment  his  pure  and  holy  soul  fled." 

M.  Singlin  was,  like  M.  de  St  Cyran,  a  great  director 
of  souls.  He  had  in  abundance  the  gift  of  unction,  and 
he  was  pre-eminently  one  of  the  "holy  and  humble  men 
of  heart "  who  learnt  to  think  nothing  of  themselves, 
but  only  of  God.  "No  one  who  came  to  him  for 
spiritual  aid  ever  regretted  it,"  says  Nicholas,  and  in 
spite  of  his  humility,  or  rather  perhaps  because  of  it, 
he  drew  hearts  to  his,  and  those  who  gave  him  their 
confidence  loved  him.  We  saw  how  he  comforted  Mere 
Angelique  in  her  fears  of  death.  We  shall  see  how 
wisely  and  gently  he  taught  the  wilful  and  lovable 
Madame  de  Longueville,  and  her  friend,  Mademoiselle 
de  Vertus.  Their  grief  at  his  death,  their  sense  of  loss, 

857 


358  EVIL  DAYS 

were  terrible,  but  in  M.  de  Saci  they  found  a  worthy 
successor,  as  the  great  M.  le  Maitre  had  discovered 
years  before. 

M.  Singiin  was  buried  in  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  but, 
according  to  the  custom,  repugnant  to  our  views  (and 
indeed  Fontaine  owns  his  dislike  to  "cette  esp£ce  de 
massacre"),  his  heart  was  sent  to  Port  Royal  des 
Champs. 

The  Community  of  Port  Royal  was  indeed  to  be 
pitied — M.  Singiin  dead,  M.  de  Saci  in  hiding,  and  they 
themselves  waiting  for  the  blow  to  fall  on  them. 

M.  de  Sainte  Marthe  was  in  correspondence  with 
those  poor  sufferers,  and  it  is  said  that  hardly  any  of 
those  who  passed  away  died  uncomforted  and  without 
the  Sacraments.  Certainly  he  managed  to  visit  Port 
Royal  very  frequently.  There  is  a  beautiful  account  of 
Sainte  Marthe  climbing  up  into  a  tree  on  a  cold  winter's 
night,  and  speaking  words  of  consolation  to  the  little 
group  of  nuns  gathered  beneath. 

He  was  a  true  guide  of  souls,  although  he  stoutly 
denied  the  possession  of  any  gifts,  or  any  power  to  "  faire 
goiiter  les  hommes  des  choses  de  salut."  But  no  one  who 
was  able  to  write  that  most  tender  and  touching  appeal  to 
the  Archbishop,  which  we  have  quoted,  could  have  been 
destitute  of  gifts  and  graces,  and  his  letters  are  deeply 
spiritual,  full  of  humility,  steeped  in  Holy  Scripture. 
Angelique  de  St  Jean  could  not  endure  him,  and  it  is 
said  by  Racine  that  there  were  two  camps,  on  one  side 
Mere  Angdique  de  St  Jean,  Christine  Briquet,  and  M. 
de  Saci ;  on  the  other  the  Mere  du  Fargis,  M.  de  Sainte 
Marthe  and  M.  Nicole ;  and,  he  went  on,  "  M.  de  Sainte 
Marthe  always  gave  in."  Prayer  was  Sainte  Marthe's 
chief  subject,  to  make  people  pray  his  great  desire. 

It  is  a  pity  that  in  the  two  published  volumes  of  his 
Letters  the  names  of  his  correspondents  are  not  given — 
as  Sainte  Beuve  says  :  "Ce  qui  fait  le  principal  int^ret 
des  correspondances." 

We  must  not  forget  that  it  was  in  Sainte  Marthe  that 
Pascal  most  confided,  and  this  does  indeed  make  us 
realise  how  rare  and  beautiful  a  soul  was  his,  to  whom 


M.  DE  SAINTE  MARTHE  359 

Pascal  laid  bare  his  conscience  in  those  last  moments 
of  his  life. 

Nothing  was  more  striking  in  M.  de  Sainte  Marthe 
than  his  great  inwardness ;  he  writes  to  one  of  those  whom 
he  directed,  that  to  send  her  a  rule  of  life  would  be  quite 
useless,  no  one  could  do  it  for  her — "  c'est  a  Dieu  qu'il  la 
faut  demander." 

Of  course  this,  like  every  other  axiom,  cannot  be 
pushed  to  extremes  ;  most  of  those  who  have  made  any 
progress  in  spiritual  life  would  testify  to  the  benefit  of 
living  by  rule ;  but  probably  Sainte  Marthe  knew  that 
the  person  to  whom  he  was  writing  was  apt  to  depend 
on  outward  helps  only,  or  at  any  rate,  too  much.  He 
speaks  much  of  the  light  of  the  Holy  Spirit  given  to 
individual  Christians  by  God,  by  our  Lord  who  is  our 
Light.  "Let  us  consult  Him,  and  follow  Him,  and 
keep  ourselves  near  Him.  Let  nothing  ever  separate 
us  from  Him,  and  we  shall  see  in  Him  everything  we 
should  do,  infinitely  better  than,  in  my  opinion,  men  can 
give  us."  Could  any  Protestant  speak  more  clearly  than 
this  man,  who  was  pre-eminently  a  confessor? 

Here  is  a  beautiful  letter  to  a  young  widow — his 
niece : — 

"  Remember  every  day  what  St  Paul  still  teaches 
you,  that  if  you  would  be  a  Christian  widow,  you  should 
nave  no  hope,  comfort,  or  support,  save  in  God  only. 
Instead  of  what  you  perhaps  once  hoped  to  get  from 
a  mortal  man,  if  it  is  true  that  God  has  become  your 
All,  show  the  trust  you  have  in  Him,  by  fervent  and 
continual  prayers,  which  will  bring  to  you  and  your 
children  the  grace  which  is  needful  for  you.  You  ought 
to  realise  that  your  chief  business,  and  that  on  which 
your  salvation  depends,  is  the  education  of  these 
children.  God  has  only  granted  them  to  you  in  order 
that  you  may  teach  them  piety  by  word  and  example, 
and  so  to  work  that  they  may  abide  through  all  their 
lives,  steadfast  in  the  .Faith  and  in  purity  of  soul  and 
body.  And  if  to  this  is  joined  an  absolute  submission 
to  God,  which  will  make  you  endure  with  patience, 
courage,  joy,  those  crosses  which  certainly  must  come,  I 
am  certain,  I  can  assure  you,  you  have  no  need  of  a 
cloister  in  which  to  work  out  your  salvation.  I  do  not 


360  EVIL  DAYS 

see  how  you  could  enter  one,  with  such  a  large  family  on 
which  your  mother  love  obliges  you  to  bestow  all  your 
time  and  cares  and  labours.  It  would  be  difficult  for 
me  to  believe  that  in  your  state  of  life,  God  calls  you  to 
the  Religious  Life,  for  you  could  not  enter  it  without 
failing-  in  the  most  important  duty  of  a  Christian 
mother." 

He  goes  on  to  say  that  for  a  mother  to  leave  her 
children  for  the  cloister  would  imply  a  very  extra- 
ordinary vocation.  It  is  refreshing  to  find  a  Port 
Royalist  attaching  real  value  to  home  and  home  duties. 
Most  of  our  dear  friends  would  have  advised  her  to 
place  all  her  children  in  convents  and  retire  to  one 
herself. 

Then  he  warns  her  against  any  idea  of  a  second 
marriage,  in  rather  severe  words ;  hardly  any  Port 
Royalist  could  properly  appreciate  the  married  state. 

It  is  perhaps  worth  noticing  some  words  on  prayer 
in  one  of  the  Defenses  de  Port  Royal.  The  Port 
Royalists  were  accused  of  neglect  of  various  devotional 
exercises,  systematic  prayer,  and  so  on.  The  writer 
says : — 

"  It  is  right  to  prepare  oneself  for  prayer,  and  to 
place  oneself  in  the  Presence  of  God,  so  that  one  will 
only  think  of  Him  so  far  as  it  is  possible ;  it  is  right  to 
prepare  for  one's  earnest  consideration  certain  truths,  so 
that  one's  will  may  be  kindled,  and  one  may  say  with 
David :  In  meditatione  mea  exardescet  ignis ;  it  is  very 
profitable  to  have  continually  in  one's  mind  some  good 
resolution  about  overcoming  the  temptations  that  one 
meets,  about  correcting  one's  faults,  and  about  practis- 
ing every  virtue. 

"  It  is  in  this  sort  of  exercise  that  the  method  of  St 
Charles  and  of  St  Francois  de  Sales  consists,  and  this 
method  is  good  and  approved  by  all." 

The  Port  Royalists  distrusted  very  complicated 
spiritual  exercises,  and  the  kind  of  spiritual  direction 
which  occupied  people's  minds  more  in  thinking  how 
to  pray  than  in  prayer  itself  was  highly  distasteful  to 
them. 


ARREST  OF  M.  DE  SACI  361 

A  great  blow  was  the  arrest  of  M.  de  Saci,  who  was 
concealed,  together  with  his  faithful  friend  Nicholas 
Fontaine,  and  M.  du  Fosse",  in  a  house  in  an  obscure 
corner  of  Paris. 

Du  Fosse  says  that  he  thought  no  one  could  object 
to  them,  "since  reading  Baronius  and  working  at 
Ecclesiastical  History  were  not  exactly  the  occupations 
which  would  either  fit  them  for  committing  high  treason 
or  for  becoming  important  enough  to  justify  a  Prince, 
who  was  occupied  in  high  and  mighty  affairs,  casting  his 
eyes  on  them." 

The  household  only  consisted  of  M.  de  Saci, 
Fontaine,  the  two  MM.  Du  Fosse,  and  someone  else 
of  whose  identity  we  are  not  certain. 

Mme.  de  Longueville  was  now  under  M.  de  Saci's 
direction,  and  early  in  the  morning  of  the  isth  or  I4th 
of  May  I666,1  he  and  Fontaine  went  out  with  the 
intention  of  walking  to  the  Hotel  de  Longueville,  and 
hearing  Mass  on  the  way.  The  carriage  of  the  Lieu- 
tenant Civile  met  them,  and  the  two  unsuspecting  men 
were  pointed  out  to  him.  He  sent  some  of  his  men  to 
follow  them,  while  he  himself  went  on  to  De  Saci's 
house  ;  Du  Fosse,  who  had  just  returned  to  Paris,  was 
a  little  tired  and  only  just  up.  To  his  great  surprise,  as 
he  was  dressing,  he  heard  a  great  noise  in  the  house, 
and,  opening  his  door,  discovered  a  number  of  guards. 
Du  Fosse  was  not  a  little  taken  aback  to  find  himself 
in  the  presence  of  the  Lieutenant  and  various  other 
official  people,  who  stationed  guards  at  all  the  doors, 
arrested  Du  Fossa's  brother,  and  proceeded  with  much 
politeness  to  draw  up  a  report.  The  Lieutenant 
questioned  Du  Fosse"  on  all  sorts  of  small  details, 
about  visits  he  had  made,  about  the  friends  he  had 
seen  (nothing  could  disabuse  the  authorities  of  the  idea 
that  Port  Royal  was  the  centre  of  a  serious  conspiracy, 
an  ecclesiastical  fronde].  The  Lieutenant  was  irritated 
to  find  that  he  could  discover  nothing  at  all  incriminat- 
ing, and  in  a  fit  of  impatience  asked  Du  Fosse!  why  on 
earth  he  led  this  kind  of  life  ;  why  didn't  he  purchase  an 

1  M.  de  St  Cyran  had  been  arrested  on  I3th  May  1638, 


362  EVIL  DAYS 

appointment  and  marry  and  settle  down?  Du  Foss£ 
replied,  "everyone  to  his  taste,"  and  that  he,  at  any  rate, 
felt  that  the  persecution  of  friends  was  an  additional 
reason  for  living  with  them. 

He  was  a  chivalrous  person,  and  possessed  a  gallant 
spirit  which  resented  the  petty  espionage,  this  absurd 
persecution  of  people  of  the  calibre  of  De  Saci  and 
Antoine  Arnauld.  The  Lieutenant  and  Du  Fosse 
went  into  the  latter's  study,  and  Du  Fosse",  while  the 
magistrate  was  admiring  the  view,  slipped  into  his 
pocket  a  copy  of  the  Provincial  Letters,  which,  he 
observed,  M.  le  Lieutenant  would  certainly  have  con- 
fiscated as  profitable  for  himself,  but  very  bad  for  Du 
Fosse*. 

Nothing  incriminating  was  found  among  Du  Fosses 
papers  or  in  the  rooms  of  his  brother — a  boy  fresh  from 
college,  and  not  at  all  versed  in  controversy.  Just  as 
Du  Foss6  was  congratulating  himself  that  it  was  all 
over  and  that  De  Saci  and  Fontaine  were  well  out  of 
it,  up  drew  a  carriage,  and  out  of  it  emerged  both  these 
luckless  people.  It  appears  that  the  officers  sent  by 
the  Lieutenant  had  caught  up  De  Saci  and  Fontaine 
in  a  quiet  street,  and  had  taken  them  to  a  house  of  a 
legal  functionary.  They  had  been  looking  at  the  walls 
of  the  Bastille  and  compassionating  one  of  the  inmates 
who  was  known  to  them,  when  they  were  arrested.  De 
Saci's  chief  regret  was  that  he  had  left  behind  him  his 
little  copy  of  St  Paul's  Epistles,  which  he  always  carried 
about  with  him,  but  which  on  this  fatal  morning  he  had 
left  at  home. 

After  some  weary  hours  of  waiting  they  were  taken 
back  to  De  Saci's  house,  where  De  Saci  underwent 
a  long  interrogation.  Letters  addressed  to  various 
people  were  in  his  pockets,  and  his  MS.  translation  of 
the  New  Testament.  "  Who  are  these  people?"  asked 
the  magistrate.  "Oh,  they  are  all  for  me,"  replied  De 
Saci.  "  Cela  sent  bien  la  cabale,"  said  M.  le  Lieutenant. 
"Cela  sent  la  precaution,"  replied  De  Saci,  who,  during 
all  the  weary  hours  of  questioning  was  calm,  courageous, 
and  silent  as  to  his  correspondents'  identity. 


M.  DU  FOSSti'S  ARREST  AND  RELEASE  363 

The  Lieutenant  went  to  St  Germain  and  handed 
in  his  report  to  the  King-,  who  was  pleased  to  say  that 
M.  de  Saci  was  undoubtedly  a  man  of  virtue  and  of 
intelligence,  but  nevertheless  was  also  pleased  to  shut 
up  this  virtuous  person  in  the  Bastille  for  two  years. 

For  nearly  a  fortnight  these  unfortunate  people 
remained  prisoners  in  this  house,  and  then  three 
carriages  arrived,  escorted  by  soldiers  and  officers,  and 
orders  were  given  that  De  Saci,  Fontaine,  and  Du  Fosse 
and  his  young  brother  were  all  to  prepare  to  go  to  the 
Bastille.  Even  in  France  under  Louis  XIV.,  this 
must  have  seemed  a  somewhat  arbitrary  proceeding. 
Naturally,  as  the  procession  of  carriages,  escorted  by 
such  an  array  of  armed  men,  proceeded  along-  the 
streets,  the  prisoners  were  supposed  to  be  notorious 
malefactors — coiners,  for  instance.  They  were  all  lodged 
separately,  but  Mme.  de  Pomponne,  M.  d'Andilly's 
excellent  daughter-in-law,  took  possession  of  the  house 
they  had  left.  M.  de  Pomponne  had  indeed  invited 
Du  Fosse"  to  go  with  him  to  Sweden,  to  which  country 
he  had  been  appointed  Ambassador. 

Du  Foss6  spent,  as  he  says,  some  miserable  days, 
solaced  a  little  by  the  friend  whose  fate  Fontaine  and 
M.  de  Saci  had  been  bewailing  when  they  were  them- 
selves arrested,  the  Sieur  Savreux. 

For  three  miserable  weeks,  Du  Foss6,  his  brother, 
and  a  friend  of  theirs  who  had  been  arrested  with  them, 
were  kept  in  the  Bastille,  and  it  was  only  through  the 
exertions  of  Mme.  du  Fosse"  that  they  were  released, 
on  the  condition  that  they  should  go  to  Normandy  and 
not  return  to  Paris  without  permission.  Such  was 
the  tyranny  so  dear  to  Louis  XIV. 

Du  Foss£  did  retire  to  his  home  in  Normandy,  and 
then  paid  a  visit  to  the  Bishop  of  Angers,  of  whom  he 
gives  a  most  pleasing  description.  He  also  says  much 
of  his  love  for  his  Norman  peasants  at  Le  Fosse — how 
affectionate  and  generous  they  were.  Fontaine  was 
left  in  the  Bastille,  and  by  no  means  wished  to  be 
released  if  freedom  meant  separation  from  M.  de  Saci. 
His  own  desire  and  prayer  was  to  be  allowed  to  occupy 


364  EVIL   DAYS 

the  same  rooms  as  his  master ;  and  not  a  little  to  his 
surprise  this  request  was  granted.  One  day  the  poor 
youth  was  feeling  ill  and  unhappy;  he  was  suddenly 
told  to  pack  up  his  few  possessions,  and  was  abruptly 
introduced  into  the  apartment  of  M.  de  Saci,  who  was 
not  the  least  prepared  for  such  a  solace.  The  prisoners 
embraced  with  effusion,  and  the  official  who  had 
conducted  Nicholas  was  quite  overcome  by  their  joy. 
He  begged  them  to  finish  their  dinner,  which  both  had 
begun  when  they  were  interrupted  in  their  respective 
rooms.  As  soon  as  he  left  them,  the  friends  flung 
themselves  on  their  knees  in  one  burst  of  thankfulness, 
and  each  month  as  the  day  of  their  reunion  came 
round,  they  made  a  special  act  of  thanksgiving,  repeat- 
ing certain  psalms  which  M.  de  Saci  chose.  They  also 
kept  the  day  of  their  arrest. 

For  a  whole  week  they  observed  a  sort  of  retreat  of 
thankfulness,  and  then  began  a  life  of  work  and  of 
prayer,  broken  by  short  intervals  for  air  and  exercise, 
during  which  the  Governor  of  the  Bastille  endeavoured 
to  trap  M.  de  Saci  into  some  dangerous  expression  of 
opinion  which  might  be  reported  against  him.  It  is 
hardly  needful  to  say  that  these  efforts  were  fruitless. 
In  a  mocking  spirit  he  tried  to  persuade  De  Saci 
to  make  some  effort  to  be  released.  "  Don't  you 
remember,"  said  he,  "the  text:  'Help  yourself  and 
Heaven  will  help  you,' "  which  text,  Fontaine  remarks, 
was  left  out  of  the  translation  of  the  New  Testament 
on  which  M.  de  Saci  had  been  engaged  so  long.  They 
were  both  allowed  to  be  present  daily  at  Mass,  but 
were  never  allowed  to  make  their  Communion,  a  most 
tyrannous  prohibition. 

The  great  work  of  M.  de  Saci  was  this  translation. 
The  New  Testament  had  been  begun  in  1657,  and  he, 
Nicole,  and  Antoine  Arnauld  had  worked  at  it  together  ; 
it  was  finished  before  De  Saci's  arrest.  During  his 
imprisonment  he  worked  at  the  Old  Testament,  and  he 
finished  his  work  on  the  day  before  his  release. 

The  New  Testament  was  published  at  Amsterdam, 
and,  as  was  natural,  was  much  denounced  on  its  first 


DE  SACI  AND  FONTAINE  IN  PEISON    365 

appearance ;  yet,  after  the  Peace  of  the  Church,  it  was 
submitted,  together  with  Arnauld  and  Nicole's  book 
entitled  La  Perpttuitt  de  la  Foi,  to  the  judgment  of 
Bossuet,  and  won  some  approval  from  him.  His  criti- 
cism on  the  translation  was  that  the  Holy  Scriptures 
had  been  put  into  rather  ultra  fine  language.  The 
translators  were  quite  willing  to  submit  to  criticism  from 
Bossuet,  and  meetings  were  held  at  the  house  of 
Madame  de  Longueville.  All  was  broken  off,  however, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  by  her  death.  We  feel  that  the 
translation  is  not  adequate.  Take  two  examples  :  "Or 
la  foi  est  le  fondement  des  choses  que  Ton  espere  et  une 
preuve  certaine  de  ce  qui  ne  se  voit  point."  "  II  y  a 
plusieurs  demeures  dans  la  maison  de  mon  Pere."  To 
those  who  have  been  steeped  in  the  Vulgate  or  the 
English  Authorized  Version,  De  Saci's  translation  does 
not  appeal. 

The  translators  used  the  Vulgate,  comparing  it  with 
the  Greek  text,  and  translated  from  the  Greek  where  it 
does  not  agree  with  the  Vulgate. 

There  is  a  most  interesting  Preface  to  the  edition 
published  in  1669,  which  begins  :  "  It  is  so  essential  and 
right  that  all  Christians  should  have  love  and  reverence 
for  the  New  Testament,  that  these  feelings  can  never  be 
obliterated  unless  Christians  should  forget  the  Name 
they  bear  ..."  There  is  a  beautiful  passage  on  the 
Eucharist  and  the  Word  of  God  being  alike  the  Food 
of  the  Soul. 

The  Old  Testament  was  published  in  parts ;  it  is  a 
translation  from  the  Vulgate,  and  it  is  true,  as  far  as  we 
can  judge,  that  in  the  Old  Testament  De  Saci  had  a 
task  rather  beyond  his  powers.  Bossuet  would  have 
done  it  better. 

Returning  to  the  prison  life — now  and  then  some 
gleams  of  pleasure  were  afforded  them.  Fontaine  wrote 
a  charming  description  of  their  life  to  the  physician 
Hamon,  in  which  he  says  : — 

"  If  you  ever  knew  how  one  day  was  spent,  you  know 
how  all  pass.  The  day  is  divided  between  prayer  and 
study,  from  beginning  to  end,  and  there  is  nothing 


366  EVIL  DAYS 

deathlike  or  feeble  in  these  absolutely  inward  and 
spiritual  exercises  .  .  .  although  we  are  all  day  together, 
we  say  very  little  ;  we  both  have  the  same  love  of  silence, 
we  both  feel  it  to  be  necessary  so  that  we  may  enjoy 
peace  and  lose  none  of  its  fruits.  From  four  or  five  in 
the  morning  until  noon,  we  very  often  do  not  speak  two 
sentences.  In  the  afternoon  we  converse  > about  our 
friends  and  then  read  some  passage  of  the  Bible,  which 
keeps  us  about  half  an  hour,  and  we  t  relapse  into 
absolute  silence  until  we  rise  from  our  evening  meal,  and 
then  we  do  much  the  same  as  in  the  afternoon  until 
Compline. 

"H6rissant"  (M.  de  Saci's  faithful  servant)  "is  in 
the  anteroom  as  silent  as  we,  working  away  at  his 
miniature.  And  thus  we  three  spend  our  days  in 
perfect  harmony,  no  annoyances,  or  tempers,  or 
*  ennui.1  .  .  . 

"And  besides,  I  wish  you  could  be  present  at  our 
innocent  little  concerts.  Hardly  a  day  goes  by  without 
our  chanting  some  hymn  or  canticle.  .  .  .  We  spend 
the  hours  of  conversation  in  talks  about  each  of  our 
friends,  each  comes  before  us  in  turn ;  and  we  are 
compelled  by  our  state  of  life  to  die  to  present  things  ; 
we  revive  the  memory  of  past  days.  .  .  .  We  are 
certain  that  if  the  pity  of  men  delivers  us  not  from 
prison,  death  at  least  will  set  us  free." 

The  Peace  of  the  Church  was  concluded  in  1669  and 
De  Saci  and  Fontaine  were  released. 

But  we  must  retrace  our  steps  a  little,  in  order  to  see 
how  this  event  was  accomplished. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  PEACE  OF   THE   CHURCH  (1669) 

As  we  have  seen,  in  an  evil  hour  Pope  Innocent  X. 
had  issued  the  Bull  concerning  the  famous  Five  Pro- 
positions, and  we  have  followed  the  sad  story  of 
persecution,  of  attempts  at  compromise,  of  explanations, 
of  distinctions  between  "  foi  humaine"  and  "  foi  divine," 
and  between  "fait"  and  "droit." 

In  1665  Louis  XIV.  was  moved  to  request  a  fresh 
Papal  intervention.  The  Episcopal  opinion  in  France 
was  by  no  means  unanimous  ;  a  fresh  Bull  was  needed. 

The  then  reigning-  Pope,  Alexander  VII.,  as  Cardinal 
Chigi,  had  taken  a  very  active  part  in  inducing 
Innocent  X.  to  issue  the  unhappy  Bull  of  1653,  and 
he  was  delighted  to  please  the  eldest  son  of  the 
Church,  Louis  XIV.,  and  to  gratify  his  own  predi- 
lections. 

Rumours  of  course  were  rife  in  France  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Bull,  and  Nicole,  the  friend  of  Antoine 
Arnauld,  wrote  a  bold  letter  (needless  to  say  not 
under  his  own  name)  in  which  he  sets  forth  the  following 
propositions : — 

1.  That  to  be  excommunicated  unjustly  in  no  way 
injures  the  excommunicated  person,  who  is   not  really 
separated  from  the  Church. 

2.  It  is  possible  to  remain  in  real  communion  with 
the    Church,    even    though    one   be   unjustly    excom- 
municated. 

3.  This  unjust    excommunication    is  a  species   of 
martyrdom  acceptable  to  God. 

367 


368      THE  PEACE  OF   THE  CHUECH 

4.  Nothing  must  be  done  in  the  shape  of  forcing  one's 
conscience  to  avoid  excommunication. 

Nicole  had  been  busy  for  some  time  in  writing  and 
publishing  letters  Sur  r  He're'sie  Imaginaire  under  the 
name  of  Sieur  de  Damvilliers,  and  also  Lettres  Vision- 
naires,  which  were  partly  in  answer  to  an  attack  on 
Nicole  and  Sainte  Marthe's  Apologiepour  les  Religieuses 
de  Port  Royal. 

On  the  1 5th  of  February  1665  the  Bull  was 
published.  All  ecclesiastics,  religious  of  both  sexes, 
and  schoolmasters  were  obliged  to  sign  the  formulary. 

We  have  seen  the  misery  which  had  come  on  Port 
Royal,  and  in  1666  it  would  seem  that  the  darkest  hour 
had  now  fallen  on  them.  Arnauld  and  M.  de  Sainte 
Marthe  and  Nicole  were  in  hiding,  M.  de  Saci  was  in 
the  Bastille,  and  a  handful  of  holy  and  devoted  women 
were  confined  in  their  own  Convent,  and  in  life  and  in 
death  were  deprived  of  the  Sacraments. 

And  against  the  powers  of  this  world  four  Bishops 
alone  stood  out,  and  dared  the  Pope  and  the  King  and 
the  Order  of  Jesus.  These  four  Bishops  were  Nicolas 
Pavilion,  Bishop  of  Alet,  Henry  Arnauld,  Bishop  of 
Angers,  Nicolas  Choart  de  Buzanval,  Bishop  of 
Beauvais,  Etienne  Fran£ois  de  Caulet,  Bishop  of 
Pamiers.  These,  who  are  perhaps  not  unlike  our  Seven 
Bishops,  have  had  their  lives  recorded  in  a  volume 
entitled  Vies  des  quatre  Evdques ;  they  are  a  noble 
little  band. 

Of  these,  the  strongest  and  most  remarkable  was 
Nicolas  Pavilion,  who,  apart  from  his  connection  with 
Port  Royal,  well  deserves  to  be  remembered  as  the  very 
model  of  a  true  pastor,  a  veritable  follower  of  the  Pastor 
Pastorum. 

It  is  remarkable  that,  different  as  the  four  Bishops 
were  in  character  and  in  rank,  they  were  conspicu- 
ously alike  in  holiness  of  life,  in  self-denial,  in  devotion 
to  their  work,  and  in  absolute  disregard  of  Court 
favour. 

Of  these  four  Bishops,  M.  d'Alet  stood  out  as  the 
conspicuous  champion  of  the  rights  and  prerogatives  of 


M.  D'ALET  369 

the  Episcopate  as  against  the  Papacy,  rights  and  prero- 
gatives which,  as  it  seems  to  us,  are  too  often  set  aside  by 
the  excessive  ultramontanism  of  the  Western  Church. 

In  the  first  beginning  of  the  trouble  concerning  the 
signature  of  the  Formulary,  he  resented  the  decision 
compelling  Bishops  to  sign  the  Formulary,  and  declared, 
with  a  boldness  which  must  have  surprised  Louis  XIV., 
that  the  King  himself  could  not  give  to  an  uncanonical 
assembly  any  right  to  make  such  laws. 

M.  d'Alet  wrote  a  respectful  remonstrance  to  the 
King,  and  prohibited  any  signing  of  the  Formulary  in 
his  diocese.  He  was  thereby  thrown  into  direct  con- 
nection with  Port  Royal.  The  second  Bull  of  1665 
of  Alexander  VII.  drew  from  him  a  charge  (Mande- 
ment]  which  was  much  read  and  discussed.  In  fact, 
the  whole  French  Church  were  anxiously  considering 
what  he  would  say.  "  II  y  a  des  moments  ou  la  con- 
science publique  aime  a  se  personifier  dans  un  homme, 
elle  s'en  fait  un  oracle." l 

The  three  other  Bishops  followed  his  example,  and 
the  King  solicited  from  Rome  a  command  to  these 
prelates  to  retract  their  charges  and  also  powers 
to  create  a  commission  to  try  them  for  recalcitrancy. 

This  proceeding  was  by  no  means  approved  of 
by  Louis's  Ministers.  Colbert,  his  Minister  of  Finance, 
and  Le  Tellier,  the  Chancellor,  thought  it  by  no  means 
judicious  to  give  Rome  too  much  power  to  interfere 
in  the  private  affairs  of  the  Kingdom  of  France. 

There  was  a  feeling  amongst  various  people  at 
the  time  that  if  M.  dAlet  paid  a  visit  to  the  Court, 
the  affair  might  be  arranged.  But  wiser  counsels 
prevailed.  The  great  friend  of  Mme.  de  Longueville, 
Mademoiselle  de  Vertus  (both  these  great  ladies  were 
much  mixed  up  with  the  controversy  of  the  day)  wrote, 
"  We  do  not  belong  to  the  age  when  God  sent  prophets 
to  kings,  whom  they  found  in  private  without  diffi- 
culty." 

Pope  Alexander  VII.  willingly  published  a  Bull 
appointing  a  commission  of  Bishops  to  judge  the  four 

1  Sainte  Beuve. 

2  A 


370   THE  PEACE  OF  THE  CHURCH 

recalcitrant  prelates  ;  but  before  anything  could  be  done, 
the  Pope  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Cardinal  Rospig- 
liosi,  under  the  title  of  Clement  IX.  The  new  Pope  was 
said  to  be  of  very  pacific  disposition  :  the  opportunity  was 
felt  by  all  to  be  great.  A  letter  was  drawn  up  on  the 
subject,  and  signed  by  nineteen  Bishops,  vindicating 
the  incriminated  four,  and  beseeching  the  Holy  Father 
to  give  peace  to  the  disturbed  Church. 

But  the  person  who  did  most  to  bring  about  the 
peace  of  the  Church  was  Madame  de  Longueville,  who 
had  been  under  the  spiritual  direction  of  the  Port  Royal 
divines  since  1661,  and  who  had  sheltered  Antoine 
Arnauld  and  Nicole  and  others  in  her  hotel.  She,  the 
sister  of  the  great  Conde,  a  princess  of  the  blood  Royal 
of  France,  who  had  found  rest  for  her  troubled  soul, 
through  the  teaching  of  M.  Singlin  and  M.  de  Saci, 
flung  herself  into  the  cause  and  wrote  an  eloquent  and 
touching  letter  to  the  Pope.  Her  house  was  the  ac- 
credited meeting-place  of  the  party,  and  she  describes 
that  party  in  epigrammatic  terms ;  probably  both 
Arnauld  and  Nicole  had  their  share  in  formulating  that 
letter. 

The  negotiations  of  this  Peace  dragged  on  rather 
wearily,  and  were  very  complicated.  The  King  was  not 
at  all  pleased  when  he  first  heard  of  the  nineteen  Bishops  ; 
but  things  were  beginning  to  interest  him  other  than 
persecuting  helpless  women  and  learned  scholars ; 
Antoine  Arnauld,  hitherto  so  impracticable,  was  tamed 
and  reduced  to  reason.  The  chief  person  who  now 
made  difficulties  was  M.  d'Alet.  He  listened  to  all 
advances,  which  were  made  chiefly  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Sens,  but  he  took  great  care  to  make  no  terms  unless 
these  terms  should  expressly  include  the  Port  Royalist 
nuns.  These  poor  people  were  not  ungrateful ;  and 
indeed  it  is  a  beautiful  bit  of  Christian  chivalry  on  his 
part,  this  espousal  of  the  unpopular  party,  whom  he 
only  knew  by  name. 

However,  Antoine  Arnauld  and  the  other  Bishops 
drew  up  a  letter.  M.  de  Comminges,  who  had  tried  be- 
fore to  effect  a  compromise,  and  M.  de  Pamiers,  went  to 


ARNAULD  AT  COURT  371 

Alet  and  persuaded  the  Bishop  to  sign.  The  Papal 
Nuncio  had  an  audience  of  the  Pope,  and  at  last  peace 
was  obtained.  The  four  Bishops,  the  Port  Royalists, 
all  agreed  to  sign  the  Formulary,  with  a  clear  distinction 
between  "droit"  and  "fait." 

A  letter  signed  by  the  four  Bishops  was  also  sent  to 
the  Pope.  A  proces-verbal  containing  an  account  of 
a  synod  convoked  by  each  Bishop  for  obtaining  signa- 
tures, and  a  certificate  signed  by  Arnauld  and  M.  de 
Chalons  were  at  length  sent  to  Rome,  and  the  Brief 
proclaiming  the  Peace  of  the  Church  was  issued  in 
October  1668. 

M.  de  Sens,  who  had  worked  so  bravely  to  bring  it 
about,  just  then  fell  into  disgrace ;  but,  as  his  last  piece 
of  work  before  retiring  to  his  diocese  (the  refuge  of 
Bishops  who  fell  into  Louis  XIV.'s  disfavour),  he  con- 
trived to  present  Antoine  Arnauld  to  the  Papal  Nuncio, 
who  was  excessively  polite.  The  King  heard  of  this  visit, 
and  commanded  Arnauld  to  present  himself  at  Court. 

M.  de  Pomponne,  Arnauld's  nephew,  then  in  the  full 
tide  of  Court  favour,  presented  his  uncle  at  St  Germain, 
and  everything  went  off  with  perfect  smoothness. 
Antoine  Arnauld  made  an  excellent  little  speech,  and 
the  King  was  quite  gracious,  observing  that,  now  all 
the  disputes  were  to  be  put  away,  "il  n'en  faut  plus 
parler." 

But  the  extraordinary  feature  of  this  pacification  is, 
that  once  it  was  obtained,  the  so-called  Jansenist  heresy 
vanished.  For  a  time  what  had  been  termed  obstinacy 
was  now  termed  constancy,  and  imprisonment  and  flight 
were  distinguishing  and  honourable  marks  of  service  in 
a  good  cause. 

The  Jesuits  were  not  pleased,  and  the  Papal  Nuncio 
had  to  bear  being  told  by  Pere  Annat  that  the  work  of 
twenty  years  had  been  undone  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour. 

One  can  only  wonder  why  this  Peace  could  not  have 
been  brought  about  sooner.  No  doubt,  humanly 
speaking,  it  was  the  attitude  of  the  Bishops  and  the 
intervention  of  Madame  de  Longueville,  that  brought 
about  the  new  Pope's  willingness  to  gratify  the  Church. 


372      THE   PEACE   OF   THE   CHUECH 

But  as  Arnauld  and  the  unfortunate  Sisters  at  Port 
Royal  yielded  now,  it  seems  as  if  they  might  as  well 
have  done  so  some  years  before  when  M.  de  Comminges 
made  his  fruitless  attempt. 

M.  de  Saci  was  released ;  to  M.  de  Pomponne  was 
allowed  the  pleasure  of  conducting*  his  holy  and  much 
enduring  cousin,  and  Nicholas  Fontaine,  out  of  their 
prison.  M.  de  Saci  had  been  deprived  of  Holy  Com- 
munion for  two  and  a  half  years  ;  now  the  Archbishop 
received  him  kindly  and  presented  him  a  few  days  later 
at  Court.  It  may  be  well  imagined  that  Madame  de 
Longueville  and  Mademoiselle  de  Vertus  were  rejoiced 
to  welcome  their  spiritual  father. 

And  Port  Royal.  As  soon  as  rumours  of  peace 
reached  the  devoted  band,  the  nuns  met  in  Chapter,  and 
agreed  to  pray  much,  and  to  be  very  careful  as  to 
signing  anything  fresh.  Indeed,  they  said  that  after  all 
there  was  a  hollowness  about  this  Peace;  it  is  true 
that  it  was  due  only  to  the  fact  that  Louis  XIV.  was 
not  yet  strong  enough  to  put  down  the  Port  Royalists. 
Thirty  years  later,  things  were  very  different. 

The  poor  Sisters  had  already  been  considering  the 
project  set  on  foot  by  Madame  de  Longueville  to  trans- 
fer their  Community  into  the  Diocese  of  Sens.  The 
Archbishop  was  favourable  to  the  idea,  but  there  were 
great  difficulties  in  the  way — questions  of  money, 
questions  of  divisions  of  property  ;  and  in  the  middle  of 
these  discussions  came  the  proposed  Peace.  There 
were  many  searchings  of  heart ;  the  idea  of  signing  was 
repugnant  to  this  band  of  poor  women,  who  had  suffered 
so  much. 

Arnauld  wrote  a  very  long  letter  setting  forth  to  the 
Community  the  reasons  why  they  should  now  sign. 
We  do  not  wonder  that  the  devoted  Community 
hesitated.  If  they  were  to  sign  now,  why  should  they 
not  have  done  so  long  before  ?  Angelique  de  St  Jean 
resisted  as  long  as  she  could,  and  wrote  letters  to  her 
uncle  in  a  lofty  and  religious  tone,  but  she  and  the  rest 
were  at  length  won  over. 

The  Archbishop  of  Paris  at  first  hesitated,  and  paid 


THE  NUNS  EESTOEED  TO  COMMUNION  373 

no  attention  to  letters  written  by  Mere  Agnes  praying 
that  the  Community  might  be  restored  to  their  rights 
and  privileges.  But  the  Pope  had  issued  his  Bull ;  it 
was  necessary  to  do  something,  and  at  last  a  wordy 
submission  was  signed  by  the  Sisters. 

The  Archbishop  seemed  quite  overjoyed  by  this 
declaration,  and  sent  one  of  his  Clergy  to  Port  Royal 
on  the  1 5th  of  February  1669.  He  preached  a  sermon 
to  the  poor  nuns,  and  then  read  a  Charge  from  the 
Archbishop  to  the  effect  that  the  Community  might  be 
restored  to  the  visible  Communion  of  the  Church  and 
also  to  the  exercise  of  their  right  as  a  Community. 
Then  came  another  discourse,  after  which  a  Te  Deum 
was  sung,  and  the  nuns  made  their  confessions  to 
another  priest  who  was  present ;  the  next  day  came 
High  Mass  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  guard.  What 
must  have  been  the  feelings  of  the  little  band,  restored 
to  outward  fellowship,  absolved  again,  free  to  kneel 
and  receive  the  Bread  of  Life!  Antoine  Arnauld  came 
to  Port  Royal  in  a  few  days  and  celebrated  the  Divine 
Mysteries. 

A  new  question  now  arose — Was  Port  Royal  des 
Champs  to  be  united  again  to  Port  Royal  de  Paris  ? 

It  was  decided  in  the  negative,  and  Port  Royal  de 
Paris  became  a  separate  Community,  retaining  a  large 
portion  of  property  and  relinquishing  the  right  of  elect- 
ing its  own  Abbess.  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  on  the 
other  hand,  retained  the  right  to  elect  its  Superiors 
triennially.  The  affair  of  separation  was  decided  in  May 
1669,  and  Antoine  Arnauld  wrote  to  Pascal's  sister, 
Madame  Perier  :  "  La  tranquillite  de  nos  bonnes  sceurs 
dans  tout  cela  [the  division  of  the  property]  est  admir- 
able. Ce  doit  etre  la  plus  grande  consolation  de  leurs 
amis."  Arnauld  also  wrote  a  very  long  and  rather  dry 
letter  to  the  Sisters  on  the  duty  of  thankfulness. 

For  ten  years  Port  Royal  des  Champs  flourished. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  GREAT  LADIES  OF  PORT  ROYAL 

PORT  ROYAL  and  all  for  which  it  stood  had  an  irresis- 
tible attraction  for  many  great  souls,  both  men  and 
women.  Of  the  group  of  noble  women  who  came  more 
or  less  under  the  teaching  and  influence  of  Port  Royal, 
none  seems  to  us  so  extraordinarily  fascinating  as 
Genevieve  de  Bourbon,  Duchesse  de  Longueville. 
She  lives  still  in  the  pages  of  M.  Cousin's  two 
delightful  studies  of  her  life ;  she  looks  out  on  us  from 
her  portrait  in  Versailles  ;  and  after  all  these  years  she 
seems  to  inspire  those  who  read  her  story,  so  romantic, 
so  heartrending,  so  penitential,  with  the  ardent  affection 
which  she  could  so  fully  arouse  in  her  contemporaries, 
in  those  who  came  under  her  spell. 

She  was  the  daughter  of  Henri  II.  de  Bourbon, 
Prince  de  Conde,  of  the  Blood  Royal  of  France.  It 
will  be  convenient  to  give  the  descent  of  the  Conde 
family  (see  opposite  page). 

The  third  Prince  of  Conde,  Anne's  father,  married 
Charlotte  de  Montmorency,  one  of  the  most  strikingly 
beautiful  women  of  the  time  and  a  granddaughter  of 
Anne  de  Montmorency,  Constable  of  France  in  the 
unhappy  wars  of  Religion,  himself  a  veritable  type  of 
the  brutal  devotee  of  the  Catholic  party.  Of  the 
Princesse  de  Cond£,  Madame  de  Motteville  wrote: 
"  Parmi  les  Princesses  celle  qui  en  etait  la  premiere, 
avait  aussi  le  plus  en  beaute  " ;  this  was  written  some 
years  after  Anne  de  Bourbon's  birth,  and  when  the 
Princesse  de  Conde"  was  no  longer  young. 

Charlotte  de   Montmorency  had  trodden  a  thorny 


374 


THE  PRINCESSE  DE  CONDE          375 

path.  When  she  was  a  mere  child  she  had  the  mis- 
fortune to  inspire  the  susceptible  heart  of  Henry  IV. 
with  a  most  violent  passion.  He  married  her  to  the 
Prince  de  Conde  his  cousin,  whom  he  was  accustomed 
to  call  his  nephew,  and  then,  with  his  usual  disregard 
of  morality  and  decency,  paid  the  bride  the  most 

LOUIS  IX.  (S.  Louis,  d.  1270). 


6th  Son,  ROBERT,  Count  of    =    BEATRICE,  heiress  of  Bourbon, 


Clermont. 


d.  1313. 


Louis  I.,  Duke  of  Bourbon,  d.  1341. 
2nd  Son,  Comte  de  la  Marche,  d.  1361. 

JOHN,  Comte  de  la  Marche,  d.  1393. 
2nd  Son,  Louis,  Count  of  Vendome,  d.  1466. 


JOHN  II.,  of  Vendome,  d.  1473. 
FRANCIS,  Count  of  Vendome,  d.  1495, 


CHARLES,  Duke  of  Vendome,  d.  1537. 


ANTONY, 
Duke  of  Vendome, 
m.  JEANNE, 
heiress  of 
Navarre. 

HENRI  IV. 

1                              1                              1 
FRANCIS.            CARDINAL              Louis, 
BOURBON.        Prince  of  Conde 
(Mons.  le  Prince). 

HENRI, 
Prince  de  Conde. 

HENRI, 
Prince  de  Conde. 
1 

1 
Due  D'ENGHIEN 
(afterwards 
the  Great  Conde). 

1                                         1 
PRINCE              ANNE  GENEVIEVE  DE 
DE  CONTI.                      BOURBON, 
Duchesse  de  Longueville. 

compromising  attentions.  The  Prince  de  Conde",  an 
unattractive  person — "jeune  homme  sans  jeunesse — " 
grew  very  jealous,  the  Queen  Marie  de  Medicis  was  told 
by  her  wretched  favourites,  the  Concini  man  and  wife, 
that  Henry  wished  to  poison  her,  and  Henry  conducted 


376  GREAT  LADIES  OF  POET  EOYAL 

himself  more  like  a  foolish  boy  of  twenty  than  a 
renowned  monarch  of  fifty-five  years.  He  twice  visited 
the  Princesse  in  disguise.  Conde  carried  his  wife  off  to 
Belgium,  and  proclaimed  himself  heir  to  the  crown, 
visiting  Spain  and  endeavouring  to  stir  up  Philip  III.  ; 
and  "  il  s'imaginait  jouer  un  grand  role  politique." l 

Henry  IV.  prepared  for  war,  but  his  assassination 
stopped  this  and  all  his  great  plans  for  the  benefit  of 
France.  The  country  has  had  few  greater  misfortunes  ; 
"  La  main  d'un  miserable  insens6  avait  fait  retrograder 
pour  des  siecles  les  destins  de  la  France,"  says  Martin. 

This  is  somewhat  of  a  digression ;  but  we  see  how 
conspiracy,  and  intrigue,  and  politics — of  a  kind — filled 
the  life  of  Mile,  de  Bourbon's  parents,  and  it  is  not 
strange  that  she  should  have  thrown  herself  into  the 
whirlpool. 

Conde"  returned  from  his  exile,  and  some  years  later 
became  an  important  personage ;  but  the  Concini,  the 
Queen  Regent's  favourites,  trembling  not  only  for  their 
positions  but  even  for  their  lives,  contrived  to  arrest  him 
and  to  confine  him  in  the  Bastille  and  subsequently  in 
the  Bois  de  Vincennes.  Here  was  born  Anne  de 
Bourbon ;  a  few  months  after  her  birth  the  Prince  was 
set  at  liberty,  and  the  Hotel  de  Conde  became  a  centre 
of  society.  The  Due  d'Enghien,  Louis  de  Bourbon, 
to  be  known  in  later  years  as  the  Great  Conde,  was 
born  in  1619;  the  second  son,  Prince  de  Conti,  was 
born  in  1629;  the  brothers  from  their  childhood  had 
the  most  romantic  affection  for  their  beautiful  sister. 
The  Prince  de  Conti  was  especially  under  her  influence. 

Anne  de  Bourbon  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  the 
brilliant  society  which  M.  Cousin  has  so  well  described 
— witty,  yet  serious :  on  the  one  hand  fighting  duels 
and  engaging  in  romantic  adventures,  on  the  other 
discussing  the  deep  problems  of  religion  and  the 
literary  questions  of  the  day.  It  was  the  age  of  great 
causes,  great  reforms  in  the  Church,  the  age  of  great 
men  and  women.  The  religious  spirit  was  reviving; 
and  after  the  anarchy  of  the  Religious  Wars  and  the 

1  Henri  Martin. 


GIRLHOOD  OF  ANNE  DE  BOURBON    377 

not  very  devout  or  cultured  atmosphere  of  the  Court 
of  Henri  IV.,  it  was  with  relief  that  the  devout  and 
holy  souls  who  have  been  the  glory  of  the  French 
Church  in  every  century,  and  never  more  so  than  at 
this  time,  turned  for  refuge  to  holy  retreats,  to  works 
of  piety,  to  devout  contemplation.  The  century  was 
the  age  of  violent  contrasts,  of  sudden  reversals.  To 
be  taken  from  a  palace  to  a  prison,  and  thence  to  a 
scaffold,  was  no  uncommon  fate. 

Mademoiselle  de  Bourbon's  childhood  was  over- 
shadowed by  the  deaths  of  two  members  of  her 
mother's  house,  who  both  perished  on  the  scaffold. 

Montmorency  Bouteville  was  beheaded  because 
he  had  fought  a  duel.  Richelieu  had  issued  stern 
edicts  against  the  practice  of  duelling.  The  Due  de 
Montmorency  also  fell  a  victim  to  Richelieu  and  was 
beheaded  after  vainly  trying  to  raise  a  rebellion  in 
Languedoc  in  1630.  His  widow  entered  Religion, 
and  we  shall  find  her  later  on  aiding  her  niece  to  find 
pardon  and  peace. 

This  terrible  execution,  against  which  most  of  the 
great  ones  of  the  Court,  headed  by  the  Princesse  de 
Conde,  had  vainly  pleaded,  was  an  example  of  the 
frightful  mercilessness  of  the  minister.1  It  caused  the 
deepest  grief  to  the  victim's  sister,  who  became  a 
devote  and  was  drawn  to  the  Carmelite  nuns ; 
Mademoiselle  de  Bourbon  often  accompanied  her 
mother  on  her  visits  to  the  Convent,  and  made  many 
friends  among  the  religieuses,  who  were  mostly 
women  of  high  birth,  and  were  many  of  them  remark- 
able for  mental  gifts.  Anne  of  Austria  in  her  unhappy 
days  had  often  sought  a  refuge  in  this  Convent,  as, 
indeed,  the  Superior  realised  to  her  cost  when  she  was 
confronted  with  the  terrible  Richelieu  and  taxed  with 
aiding  the  correspondence  of  the  Queen  with  Spain. 

1  Montmorency's  death  made  a  most  profound  impression.  "  Personne 
ne  pouvait  s'habituer  a  Pide'e  que  cet  homme  si  beau,  si  brillant,  et  si 
brave,  heritier  du  plus  grand  nom  de  France,  allie  a  toutes  les  maisons 
souveraines  de  1'Europe,  allait  mourir  d'une  mort  infame."  H.  Martin, 
Histoire  de  France. 


378  GEEAT  LADIES  OF  POET  EOYAL 

The  Carmelites  had  Spanish  affinities,  for  their 
French  foundress  had  sent  for  Spanish  nuns,  disciples 
of  St  Theresa,  who  herself  had  reformed  the  order  in 
Spain. 

The  house  of  Longueville,  into  which  Mademoiselle 
de  Bourbon  was  to  marry,  had  sent  two  benefactresses 
to  the  Convent. 

M.  Cousin,  in  his  delightful  book,  La  Jeunesse  de 
Madame  de  Longueville,  gives  us  interesting  biographies 
of  the  Carmelites.  Of  the  first  Prioress,  Mere  Madeleine 
de  St  Joseph,  it  was  said — "  She  did  not  tread  the  way 
of  perfection,  she  ran  along  it."  "When  she  was 
Prioress,  the  convent  was  like  Paradise,  so  much 
fervour  and  longing  for  perfection  were  to  be  seen," 
says  another  religieuse. 

The  Princesse  de  Conde  and  her  daughter  had  their 
own  rooms  at  the  Convent ;  they  made  many  presents 
and  were  both  admitted  to  the  privileges  of  foundresses 
and  benefactresses,  "that  is  to  say,  the  freedom  of 
entrance  into  the  convent  at  any  time  they  pleased." 
Of  the  Princesse  de  Conde  we  read  that  "she  was  to 
be  seen  in  the  choir  at  every  office,  in  the  refectory 
observing  the  ordinary  self-denial,  and  laying  down 
her  earthly  rank  at  the  feet  of  the  spouses  of  Christ." 

This  description  gives  us  a  picture  of  very  real, 
heartfelt  devotion,  by  no  means  uncommon  among  the 
great  ladies  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Mademoiselle  de  Bourbon  was  thus  from  her  child- 
hood surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  of  religion.  But 
religion,  as  presented  by  the  Carmelite  nuns,  was 
somewhat  gloomy.  Faber  says  :  "  There  are  two  ways 
in  which  the  world  may  be  regarded  by  holy  persons : 
one  that  the  world  is  altogether  bad — 'a  perpetual 
partial  eclipse  of  God' — and  the  other  that  all 
creation  is  lying  before  them  with  the  lustre  of  God's 
benediction  upon  it." 

There  is  no  doubt  as  to  which  way  the  Carmelites 
for  the  most  part  looked  at  the  world,  and  the  young, 
ardent,  beautiful  Anne  shrank  from  it  with  great  fear. 
So  many  of  her  convent  friends  recounted  that  in  their 


FRENCH  SOCIETY  379 

own  experiences  it  was  a  world  beset  with  snares, 
encompassed  by  sorrow,  and  peopled  with  men  and 
women  of  doubtful  characters  and  seducing  manners. 
Poor  Madame  la  Princesse  had  experienced  temptations 
and  sorrows  in  great  abundance,  and  had  realised  the 
changes  and  chances  of  this  life  quite  sufficiently  to 
make  her  not  unwilling  to  yield  to  Anne's  wishes.  M. 
le  Prince,  however,  had  other  views,  and  was  not  at  all 
disposed  to  give  up  his  beautiful  and  only  daughter 
to  the  strictest  and  most  ascetic  Order  of  nuns. 
Mademoiselle  de  Bourbon  made  her  entry  in  the  great 
world,  shrinking  at  first,  and  then  by  slow  degrees 
yielding  to  all  the  allurements  and  some  of  the  tempta- 
tions of  the  wicked  and  delightful  world. 

She  was  surrounded  by  the  most  fascinating  and 
witty  society — the  Hotel  de  Rambouillet,  the  great 
Corneille,  Voiture  (a  poet  of  no  very  great  merit  who 
celebrated  Mme.  de  Longueville  in  prose  and  verse), 
Madame  de  Sable,  herself  to  become  one  of  the  friends 
of  Port  Royal,  the  good  and  gracious  Jeanne  de 
Schomberg  (Duchesse  de  Liancourt),  and  many  more. 
And  there  were  summer  excursions  to  Fontainebleau 
and  to  Chantilly,  which  had  been  granted  to  the 
Princesse  de  Conde  after  the  death  of  the  Due  de 
Montmorency. 

Life  at  Chantilly  was  extremely  gay,  amusing,  and 
interesting.  Anne  de  Bourbon  was  beautiful,  with 
golden  hair  and  deep-blue  eyes,  and  possessed  the  gift 
of  fascination.  She  could  and  did  inspire  the  deepest 
affection.  The  story  of  the  affection  felt  for  her  by  the 
authors  of  Le  Grand  Cyrus,  Mademoiselle  Scudery  and 
her  brother  George,  is  a  delightful  example  of  dis- 
interested affection  and  chivalrous  devotion.  The 
brother  and  sister  were  not  in  the  least  attached  to  the 
Fronde,  with  which  Madame  de  Longueville  was  to  be 
identified  ;  they  had  every  reason  to  fear  the  displeasure 
of  the  Court ;  and  yet  volume  after  volume  of  Le  Grand 
Cyrus  as  it  came  out  was  dedicated  to  Anne  de  Bourbon. 
Whatever  the  literary  faults  of  either  the  brother  or 
sister,  they  were  incomparable  as  friends,  and  their 


380  GEEAT  LADIES  OF  PORT  EOYAL 

devotion  was  fully  appreciated  by  Madame  de  Longue- 
ville. 

The  young  Due  d'Enghien's  unhappy  love  affairs 
possibly  clouded  this  time  for  his  sister.  He  had  fallen 
in  love  with  Mademoiselle  du  Vigean,  and  there  seemed 
no  particular  reason  why  he  should  not  marry  her. 
Although  the  Vigean  family  were  not  precisely  the 
equals  of  the  Condes,  still  there  would  have  been  no 
great  mesalliance,  and  the  young  girl  Mar  the  du  Vigean 
was  beautiful  and  good,  and  a  great  friend  of  Anne  de 
Bourbon.  But  the  young  Due  d'Enghien  was  forced 
to  marry  Mademoiselle  de  Brege,  Cardinal  Richelieu's 
niece ;  he  fell  ill  in  consequence,  recovering  in  time  to 
go  on  a  campaign.  Mademoiselle  du  Vigean  was  his 
first  and  only  love. 

No  shadow  of  blame  fell  on  the  gentle  and  beautiful 
Marthe  du  Vigean,  but  the  Due  made  fierce  and  fruitless 
attempts  to  break  through  his  marriage ;  the  situation 
was  impossible  for  her,  and  she  retired  to  the  Carme- 
lites, and,  it  is  to  be  believed,  found  comfort  and 
peace. 

The  Due  d'Enghien  had  been  forced  into  a  loveless, 
detested  marriage.  His  sister's  time  had  now  come. 
Her  parents,  "  not  being  able  to  discover  in  all  France  a 
nobleman  who  could  be  called  young,  and  to  whom 
policy  could  allow  them  to  give  Mademoiselle  de 
Bourbon,  proposed  to  her  the  greatest  nobleman  in 
France,  next  in  rank  to  the  princes  of  the  blood, 
the  Due  de  Longueville."  This  person  was  at  this 
period  forty  seven  years  of  age,  a  widower,  and  also 
attached  to  the  notorious  Madame  de  Montbazon. 

Dislike  on  the  part  of  Mademoiselle  de  Bourbon  was 
unheeded.  M.  de  Longueville  "etait  vieux  et  elle  etait 
jeune  et  belle  comme  une  ange,"  said  "  La  grande 
Mademoiselle."  On  the  2nd  of  June  1642,  she  was 
married,  and  to  all  appearances  she  was  as  radiantly 
happy,  as  she  was  dazzlingly  beautiful.  Probably  M. 
de  Longueville  did  not  consider  himself  as  being  in  a 
state  of  decrepitude.  He  was  brave  and  honourable, 
not  very  clever,  and  extremely  impulsive.  He  was  not 


MADAME  DE  LONGUEVILLE         381 

made  for  great  positions,  or  for  perilous  enterprises,  and 
an  evil  star  seemed  to  compel  him  to  be  playing 
incessantly,  and  by  no  fault  of  his  own,  a  part  in  adven- 
tures for  which  he  had  neither  inclination  nor  capacity. 
He  was  not  a  man  of  spotless  reputation,  and  numerous 
quarrels  ensued  between  himself  and  his  mother-in-law, 
the  Princesse  de  Conde. 

Madame  de  Longueville  had  her  own  circle  of 
admirers,  of  would-be  lovers,  and  the  impressions  made 
on  her  by  the  Carmelites  seemed  to  have  been  destroyed 
by  the  world — only  for  a  time,  however. 

A  miserable  episode  happened  soon  after  her 
marriage.  Among  her  circle  of  adorers  was  Coligny,1 
a  handsome  boy,  son  of  M.  de  Chatillon.  A  silly  trick 
played  by  Madame  de  Montbazon  on  the  young 
Duchesse  enraged  Coligny,  who,  unable  to  challenge  the 
real  offender,  fell  on  M.  le  Due  de  Guise,  whose  dislike 
for  the  name  of  Longueville  was  well  known.  The  poor 
boy  was  killed  in  a  duel  fought  in  the  Palais  Royal,  and 
the  whole  melancholy  story  was  set  forth  in  a  novel 
written  immediately  afterwards.  Also  ribald  songs 
were  made  by  the  Parisians  on  Madame  de  Longue- 
ville ;  for  the  secret  history  of  the  duel  was  well  known. 

"  On  ne  badine  pas  avec  Tamour."  We  come  to  the 
years  of  Anne  de  Bourbon's  life  on  which  those  who 
love  her  would  rather  not  dwell,  and  for  which  she 
repented  deeply  and  truly. 

Madame  de  Longueville  went  with  her  husband  to 
Madgeburg,  where  he  was  negotiating,  or  trying1  to 
negotiate,  the  peace  of  Westphalia ;  but  he  was  little 
more  than  a  figure-head,  and  the  Princesse  left  him  and 
returned  to  her  mother  in  Paris,  where  her  eldest  son 
was  born.  Her  younger  brother,  the  Prince  de  Conti, 
was  much  with  her,  and  for  his  brilliant  sister  Conti 
had  a  passionate  admiration  ;  he  was  her  slave. 

For  a  time  life  went  on  in  all  the  gaiety  and  brilliancy 
of  former  years,  and  in  1649  the  fatal  temptation  of  her 
life  came  to  Madame  de  Longueville. 

1  Of  the  family  of  the  Admiral  Coligny  who  perished  at  the 
Bartholomew. 


382  GREAT  LADIES  OF  PORT  ROYAL 

Francois,  Prince  de  Marsillac  (b.  1613),  who  on  the 
death  of  his  father  became  the  Due  de  La  Rochefoucauld, 
by  which  name  he  is  best  known,  had  married  early  and 
had  served  in  various  campaigns.  He  was  tall,  almost 
handsome,  possessed  of  perfect  manners  and  of  complete 
selfishness,  of  self-love  and  of  self-knowledge  which 
amounted  to  genius.  If  an  enemy  had  written  of  M.  de 
La  Rochefoucauld  what  he  himself  has  told  us  concerning 
his  reasons  for  making  love  to  Madame  de  Longueville, 
we  should  simply  refuse  to  believe  it ;  but  as  he  himself 
calmly  states  that  it  was  in  order  to  excite  her,  and 
through  her,  her  brothers,  to  an  active  rebellion  against 
Mazarin,  we  are  forced  to  suppose  that  he  is  speaking 
the  truth. 

Little  by  little  M.  de  La  Rochefoucauld  subdued 
the  lofty  and  ambitious  soul,  and  dazzled  her  by  point- 
ing out  to  her  that  a  new  part  was  open  to  her.  She 
had  been  the  centre  of  an  adoring  and  loving  circle  of 
friends,  now  she  could  become  a  leader  of  men  and 
could  play  a  great  part  in  politics.  Long  years  after- 
wards Madame  de  Longueville  confessed  to  M.  Singlin 
that  her  great  fault  was  pride,  that  she  longed  to  be 
first,  to  be  distinguished.  But  whatever  her  faults  may 
have  been,  selfishness  was  not  among  them.  For  her 
false  and  selfish  lover  she  sacrificed  herself  and  all  she 
possessed  again  and  again.  How  did  M.  de  La  Roche- 
foucauld repay  this  self-devotion  ? 

"Cette  princesse  avait  tous  les  avantages  de  1'esprit 
et  de  la  beaute  en  si  haut  point  et  avec  tant  d'agrement 
qu'il  semblait  que  la  nature  avait  pris  plaisir  de  former 
un  puvrage  parfait,  et  acheve.  Mais  ses  belles  qualites 
etaient  moins  brillantes  a  cause  d'une  tache  qui  ne  s'est 
jamais  vue  en  une  princesse  de  ce  merite,  qui  est  que, 
bien  loin  de  donner  la  loi  a  ceux  qui  avaient  une  particu- 
liere  attraction  pour  elle,  elle  se  transformait  si  fort 
dans  leurs  sentiments  qu'elle  ne  reconnaissait  point  les 
siens  propres ! " 

Thus  he  writes  of  the  woman  who  had  given  him  her 
heart. 

Madame  de   Nemours,    Madame  de    Longueville's 


MADAME  DE  LONGUEVILLE         383 

step-daughter,  observes  in  her  Memoirs  that  it  was  not 
a  little  surprising-  to  see  Madame  de  Longueville  one  of 
the  first  to  join  the  party  of  non-contents.  She  had 
nothing  to  hope  from  them,  and  from  the  Court  she  had 
received  nothing-  but  kindness.  It  was  La  Roche- 
foucauld who  inspired  her  with  these  vain  and  foolish 
ambitions.  He  had  boundless  influence  over  her,  and 
as  he  thoug-ht  of  no  one  but  himself,  he  made  her  throw 
herself  into  intrigues  which  ruined  her. 

Madame  de  Motteville  observes  that  "Ce  seigneur 
(de  La  Rochefoucauld)  qui  etait  plus  interesse  qu'il 
n'etait  tendre,  voulant  s'agrandir  par  elle,  crut  lui  devoir 
inspirer  le  desir  de  gouverner  les  princes  ses  freres." 

But  Retz  really  sums  up  the  case — 

"Comme  sa  passion  1'obligea  de^  ne  mettre  la 
politique  qu'en  second  dans  sa  conduite,  de  Theroine 
d'un  grand  parti,  elle  en  devint  1'aventuriere." 

And  this  infatuation  made  her  throw  herself  into  the 
arms  of  the  very  persons  who  so  lately  had  sullied  her 
fair  fame — into  the  Guise  and  Vendome  factions.  Into 
the  history  of  the  Fronde  we  must  not  enter.  M. 
Cousin's  admirable  life  of  Madame  de  Longueville 
pendant  la  Fronde  and  Mrs  Cock's  interesting  life  of 
Madame  de  Longueville  can  be  read  by  any  who  wish 
to  follow  her  sad  story.  It  suffices  to  say  here  that  on 
the  final  break-up  of  the  Fronde  party,  Madame  de 
Longueville,  deserted  by  La  Rochefoucauld,  separated 
from  her  husband  and  her  children,  on  bad  terms  with 
her  much-loved  younger  brother,  and  in  great  grief 
on  account  of  the  exile  of  the  Great  Conde,  was 
reduced  to  as  great  a  depth  of  extreme  misery  as  she 
had  at  one  time  been  raised  to  the  height  of  human 
prosperity. 

She  had  been  virtually  alone  in  Guienne  carrying  on 
the  war  for  Conde,  and  when  at  last  a  treaty  was  drawn 
up,  by  which  peace  was^  restored  to  the  unfortunate 
province,  Madame  de  Longueville  retired  to  one  of  her 
husband's  houses  in  Anjou,  and  then  paid  a  long  visit  to 
her  aunt,  the  Duchesse  de  Montmorency,  widow  of 


384  GEEAT  LADIES  OF  POET  EOYAL 

Henri  de  Montmorency,  whose  tragic  death  had  over- 
shadowed Anne  de  Bourbon's  early  girlhood.  Madame 
de  Montmorency  had  retired  to  the  Convent  of  Sainte 
Marie  at  Moulins,  and  was  now  Superior.  It  was  here 
that  the  early  impressions  received  in  the  Carmelite 
house  at  Paris  were  revived ;  the  good  seed  so  checked 
by  the  thorns  of  the  world  sprang  up  again. 

As  in  the  case  of  another  illustrious  penitent,  it  was 
on  reading  the  Epistles  of  St  Paul  that  light  came  to 
her  sad  soul.  She  said  herself:  "A  curtain  seemed  to 
fall  from  before  her  eyes,  and  she  seemed  to  awaken  to 
realities — to  see  life  as  it  really  was."  It  was  a  very  real 
Via  Dolorosa ;  she  had  not  yet  found  a  guide  for  her 
weary  soul,  and  she  was  sorely  tried  by  outward  circum- 
stances. She  was  obliged  to  spend  some  time  in  Paris, 
and  to  hear  Conde  proclaimed  guilty  of  treason.  She 
had  humbled  herself  before  her  husband  and  was 
reconciled  to  him.  She  had  entered  again  into  re- 
lations with  her  Carmelite  friends  and  wrote  to  one  of 
them,  probably  Mademoiselle  du  Vigean,  that  nothing 
would  have  been  to  her  such  happiness  as  to  have  been 
allowed  to  spend  her  days  with  the  Carmelites.  "  But 
after  having  left  God  of  my  own  free  will,  it  would  not 
be  right  that  I  should  find  Him  in  the  very  first 
moments  of  seeking :  if  only  at  the  end  of  my  life  I  find 
I  am  not  separated  from  Him,  it  would  be  very  much 
for  me,"  she  goes  on  to  say  in  that  deep  humility  which 
gives  to  her  the  wonderful  attraction  which  she  possesses. 
She  wrote  a  great  deal  to  her  aunt  at  Moulins  ;  and  her 
friendship  with  Madame  de  Sabl6  was  to  bring  her 
great  blessings. 

In  1654  the  Prince  de  Conti  was  married  to  Anne 
Martinozzi,  niece  of  Cardinal  Mazarin,  and,  as  we  shall 
see,  they  too  were  joined  to  Madame  de  Longueville  by 
the  holiest  of  ties.  Madame  de  Longueville  lived  for 
several  years  chiefly  on  her  husband's  estates,  trying 
with  all  the  powers  of  her  generous  nature  to  atone  for 
past  mistakes  and  sins.  She  had  two  or  three  great 
friends,  and  among  them  the  holy  and  devout  Made- 
moiselle de  Vertus,  who  lived  with  her  for  many  years 


ANG^LIQUE  AND  MDME  DE  LONGUEVILLE  385 

and  outran  her,  so  to  speak,  on  the  road  towards 
Heaven. 

It  was  not  until  1661  that,  through  Madame  de 
Sable,  Madame  de  Longueville  became  acquainted  with 
Port  Royal  and  with  Mere  Angelique.  She  was  in 
great  trouble.  The  Due  de  La  Rochefoucauld  had 
published  his  memoirs  and  had  thought  fit  to  vilify  and 
ridicule  the  woman  who  had  sacrificed  herself  for  him, 
and  in  addition  to  this  trouble  she,  in  common  with  all 
the  leaders  of  the  Fronde,  was  nearly  ruined. 

As  M.  Cousin  tells  us:  "  Madame  de  Longueville 
and  her  sister-in-law,  the  Princesse  de  Conti,  pushed 
generosity  to  such  a  degree  that  they  seriously  im- 
poverished themselves,  and  they  made  it  a  duty,  at  the 
time  of  a  great  famine,  almost  to  support  entire  provinces 
which  the  Fronde  had  desolated." 

And  it  was  at  this  period,  when  she  was  worn  out  by 
worries  and  unable  to  find  real  aid  from  her  advisers, 
that  she  first  saw  Mere  Angelique,  who,  like  everyone 
else,  was  fascinated  by  the  still  graceful  and  gracious 
lady.  Some  letters  passed  between  them ;  here  is  one 
of  them : — 

4 'Your  Highness  has  so  greatly  abashed  my  lowli- 
ness by  the  kind  and  humble  words  of  the  letter  you 
have  honoured  me  by  writing,  that  I  needed  some  days 
to  think  over  it,  for  I  feel  unworthy,  not  only  of  being 
treated  in  a  way  so  out  of  proportion  to  what  I  am,  but 
even  of  being  thought  of  at  all.  But  indeed  I  own  to 
you,  Madame,  that  I  am  most  truly  comforted  by  seeing 
that  the  renewal  of  piety,  which  God  in ^ His  Mercy  has 
renewed  in  your  soul,  has  begun  with  such  great 
humility ;  for  I  know  it  is  a  real  and  sure  sign  that  that 
renewal  will  be  lasting  and  true,  and  I  am  grieved  that  I 
am  too  unworthy  to  help  your  Highness.  It  is  true 
that  as  I  am  a  companion  of  many  women  who  serye 
God  in  truth,  I  hope  that  they  will  help  me  to  obtain 
from  God  what  you  desire,  and  what  He  cannot 
refuse  you,  since  it  is  He  Himself  Who  inspires  that 
desire. 

"  How  happy  you  are  that  you  wish  most  of  all  to 
grow  in  grace  and  in  all  virtues  which  grace  produces, 
and  that  you  have  come  to  know  by  the  light  of  faith, 

2B 


386  GEEAT  LADIES  OF  POET  EOYAL 

and  not  by  vain  philosophy,  that  all  the  greatness  of  the 
world  is  but  vanity.  All  these  sad  adventures,  and  the 
strange  changes  which  happen  in  the  world,  could  not, 
any  more  than  could  the  extent  of  your  own  intelligence 
and  the  force  of  reason,  have  forced  you  to  return  so 
entirely  to  God:  His  goodness  alone  has  granted  you 
that  mercy." 

Madame  de  Longueville's  great  wish  was  now  to 
place  herself  under  M.  Singlin's  direction.  He  was  not 
anxious  to  undertake  the  office,  but  he  was  won  over, 
and  from  now  until  her  death  in  1679  the  Princesse  was 
the  firm  and  faithful  friend  of  Port  Royal,  and  one  of 
M.  Singlin's  spiritual  children  until  his  death.  He  was 
at  this  time  in  concealment,  as  we  have  seen,  and  was 
obliged  to  disguise  himself  as  a  physician  when  he  went 
to  the  Hotel  de  Longueville.  Fontaine  gives  us  an 
edifying  account  of  what  he  learned  as  to  M.  Singlin's 
dealings  with  the  sick  soul.  He  was  not  at  all  disposed 
to  allow  her  to  practise  excessive  austerities,  and  was  far 
more  anxious  that  she  should  practise  spiritual  rather 
than  bodily  mortifications. 

To  overcome  her  pride,  her  love  of  distinction,  her 

desire  to  play  a  great  part  in  her  world,  that  desire 

which  had  dragged  her  into  the  Fronde,  inspired  as  she 

had  been  by  Rochefoucauld  with  the  idea  of  being  an 

important  person,  now  M.  Singlin  checked  her  desire  to 

be,  as  it  were,  distinguished  in  piety.     To  do  her  duty 

towards  her  own  people,  in  her  own  sphere,  that  was 

the  task  he  asked  her  to  take  up,  and  to  give  up  any 

idea  of  the  Religious  Life.     And  with  sweetness  and 

docility  she  threw  herself  into  a  more  diligent  care  for 

the  things  of  her  home,  for  her  husband  and  children. 

M.  Singlin  would  allow  no  extravagances  in  devotion, 

no  conspicuous  austerities.     In  1661  she  made  a  Retreat 

at   Port   Royal  and  wrote  out  a    general  confession. 

Soon    after  this  her    husband  died,   and   M.    Singlin 

continued  to  give  her  the    same    sensible  reasonable 

counsel,  aiding  her  in  the  life  of  prayer  and  of  devotion, 

and  treating  her  so  gently  that  she  herself  was  surprised, 

and   expressed    this    feeling   when   she   found  herself 


M.  SINGLEST  AND  MDME  DE  LONGUEVILLE  387 

absolved  and    allowed  to  receive  the   Blessed   Sacra- 
ment. 

His  answer  ought  to  remove  the  idea  that  the 
directors  of  Port  Royal  tried  to  keep  penitents  from 
Holy  Communion. 

He  says  that  true  penitence  is  shown  by  almsgiving-, 
prayer,  mortifications  of  passions,  patient  enduring  of 
suffering  and  of  injuries,  self-denial,  and  ruling  one's 
life  so  that  all  one's  actions  are  consecrated  to  God. 
And  he  goes  on,  that  when  anyone  wills  to  live  this  life 
of  consecration,  and  is  truly  penitent,  that  soul  should 
not  be  refused  the  Sacraments. 

He  tells  his  illustrious  penitent  to  bear  patiently  all 
that  distresses  her,  and  to  make  restitution  as  far  as  lay 
in  her  power. 

M.  Singlin  did  his  best  to  encourage  the  trembling 
soul,  terrified  by  its  own  sins  and  by  the  fear  of  God. 
He  gives  her  admirable  advice  as  to  the  use  of  her  time, 
and  forbade  useless  and  discouraging  brooding  over 
past  days.  Her  sons  were  anything  but  joys  to  her. 
The  eldest,  the  Count  of  Dunois,  was  almost  half- 
witted ;  he  had  taken  orders.  The  second,  the  Count 
de  Saint  Paul,  who  was  passionately  loved  by  his 
mother,  caused  her  sufficient  sorrow  by  his  apparent 
want  of  affection  for  her. 

"II  est  de  la  justice  de  Dieu  sur  mes  pe" die's  qu'ayant 
servi  pour  la  joie,  je  receuille  presentement  bien  des 
chagrins." 

She  confided  some  of  her  anxieties  to  M.  Singlin, 
but  a  young  man  of  twenty  would  hardly  be  restrained 
by  attacks  on  the  drama,  which  all  the  Port  Royalists 
held  in  abomination.  M.  Singlin  wrote  a  long  discourse 
on  the  subject.  There  are  some  beautiful  exhortations 
written  for  her  when  she  was  ill  and  about  to  receive, 
not  only  Holy  Communion,  but  also  Unction.  His 
words  breathe  the  calm  trustfulness  of  a  soul  which  is 
stayed  on  God ;  the  very  Peace  of  God  flows  out  from 
these  pages  written  so  long  ago  to  comfort  and 


388    GREAT  LADIES   OF  POET  KOYAL 

encourage  a  tired  wounded  sheep,  to  bring  it  fully  into 
the  embrace  of  the  Good  Shepherd. 

"As  it  is  Jesus  Christ  Himself  who  comes  to  feed 
you  with  His  Divine  Flesh,  so  it  is  right  that  it  should 
be  He  who  speaks  to  you.  His  Flesh  is  life-giving  and 
His  word  is  the  word  of  life.  .  .  .  Lord,  Thy  mercy  has 
been  with  me  all  the  days  of  my  life  ;  it  will  be  with  me 
until  and  through  eternity.  .  .  .  Destroy  what  I  have 
done;  but  save  Thine  own  work.  Save  the  price  of 
Thy  Blood.  Finish  the  work  Thou  hast  begun.  Abide 
with  me,  so  that  in  life  and  in  death,  on  earth  and  in 
Heaven,  I  may  abide  in  Thee." 

And  in  another  of  his  written  exhortations,  he  says 
to  her : — 

"  Place  in  His  hands  your  soul,  your  body,  your  life, 
your  eternity,  and  say  to  Him,  following  the  thought  of 
a  great  saint :  '  My  God,  as  Thou  hast  given  me  all 
although  I  was  unworthy  of  all,  finish  what  Thou  hast 
begun.  Destroy  in  me  all  that  is  of  me,  and  perfect  all 
that  which  is  of  Thee.' ' 

Again,  on  the  occasion  when  she  was  to  receive 
Holy  Communion  and  Unction,  he  writes  : — 

"  Jesus  Christ  symbolized  the  whole  Christian  life 
when  He  appeared  to  His  Disciples  at  Emmaus.  He 
walks  with  them,  He  teaches  them,  He  feeds  them. 
That  is  the  grace  He  has  brought  you.  He  has  taught 
you  by  His  word  ;  He  has  fed  you  by  His  Body. 

"  Let  this  thought  bring  you  humility,  as  you  realise 
your  falls,  and  confess  that  you  cannot  but  fall.  But 
when  you  have  seen  this  cause  for  grief,  fix  your  eyes  at 
once  on  the  goodness  of  God.  His  mercy  never  seems 
greater  than  when  it  is  concerned  with  my  great  distress. 
Say  to  Him  :  *  My  soul  is  weak,  and  my  body  is  about  to 
abandon  me.  Leave  me  not,  O  my  God,  I  shall  find 
all  my  strength  in  Thee.  Thou  didst  die  for  me ;  Thou 
art  risen  forme.  ...  I  put  my  soul  into  Thy  hands.' ' 

In  her  general  confession,  which  was  written  out  by 
her  after  a  Retreat  at  Port  Royal,  she  tells  quite  simply 
what  advice  had  been  given,  what  resolutions  she  had 


M.  SINGLIN  AND  MDME  DE  LONGUEVILLE  389 

made.  She  was  to  practise  detachment  from  the  world. 
"  I  was  to  regard  myself  as  a  person  to  whom  even 
lawful  things  are  forbidden,  because  of  my  self-abandon- 
ment to  unlawful  things ;  I  was  far  away  from  God 
through  the  possession  of  these,  so  I  must,  through  His 
grace,  draw  nigh  to  Him  by  the  willing  sacrifice  of 
those." 

"  I  have  been  told  [no  doubt  by  M.  Singlin]  to  repeat 
in  my  heart  the  seven  Penitential  Psalms,  at  different 
times. 

"  I  will  divide  my  time  between  prayer,  reading,  and 
working  with  my  hands,  so  far  as  I  can.  This  work 
shall  be  for  the  poor. 

"  I  am  recommended  to  apply  to  myself  the  words  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Syro-Phenician  woman,  to 
feel  really  and  truly  that  I  am  one  of  the  dogs  who  are 
unworthy  of  the  smallest  crumbs  of  God's  grace.  I 
found  myself  dwelling  a  great  deal  on  this  thought  on 
one  of  the  days  of  my  Retreat. 

"  I  have  been  told  to  say  a  Miserere  every  day, 
prostrate  on  the  ground. 

"  I  have  been  told  to  awaken  every  night  at  two 
o'clock,  so  that  I  can  pray  for  a  little  while,  and  ask 
pardon  for  my  sins." 

And,  indeed,  abiding  sorrow  for  sin  is  ever  the  mark 
of  true  saints,  however  much  they  know  and  require  to 
know  that  they  are  forgiven. 

She  goes  on  to  say  that  before  she  began  her  general 
confession,  M.  Singlin  had  wished  to  know  if  she  were 
willing  to  enter  the  Religious  Life,  if  circumstances 
permitted,  and  if  she  were  willing  to  do  and  bear  any- 
thing and  everything,  not  only  as  tokens  of  repentance, 
but  out  of  pure  love  to  God.  She  speaks  much  of  a 
letter  which  she  had  received  some  time  before  from 
M.  Singlin,  and  which  had  greatly  helped  her,  and  she 
says  : — 

"  Since  my  reconciliation,  I  have  felt  great  peace, 
and  that  peace  has  changed  even  into  joy  every  now 
and  then." 

Perhaps  there  is  no  greater  encouragement  to  faith, 
and  no  greater  incentive  in  the  struggle  for  outward 


390  GEEAT  LADIES  OF  PORT  EOYAL 

unity  than  the  age-long  testimony  of  the  inward  unity 
of  Christendom.  Century  after  century  the  same 
remedy  is  applied  to  sin-sick  souls — our  Lord  Himself. 
The  witness  is  one,  the  language  singularly  alike ;  from 
His  disciples,  little  as  they  resemble  one  another  in 
temperament,  occupation,  station,  or  national  charac- 
teristics, comes  this  testimony;  they  meet  each  other 
as  brethren  in  Him  who  makes  of  all  nations  one.  It 
is  sad  that  His  disciples  who  speak  the  same  language 
should  misunderstand  one  another  so  grievously — that 
such  a  shepherd  of  souls  as  Singlin  should  be  suspected 
by  good  men  of  heresy.  But  it  is  the  wounds  which 
He  meets  in  the  house  of  His  friends  which  most 
deeply  pierce  the  Master.  And  of  these  wounds,  the 
quarrels  between  His  servants  are  not  the  least  to  be 
deplored,  an  1  wept  over,  and  repented  of. 

The  deatn  of  M.  Singlin  was  a  profound  sorrow  to 
Madame  de  Longueville  and  her  friend  Mademoiselle 
de  Vertus.  As  we  said,  M.  de  Saci  became  her 
director  until  his  arrest.  After  this,  she  found  a  great 
help  in  M.  Marcel,  a  parish  priest  of  Paris,  and  she 
wrote  constantly  to  Pavilion,  the  holy  Bishop  of  Alet, 
who  sent  her  letters  of  spiritual  direction.  The  Due 
de  Longueville  died  in  1663;  the  husband  and  wife 
had  long  been  perfectly  reconciled,  and  affection  had 
grown  up  between  them.  At  his  death  Madame  de 
Longueville  gave  herself  up  more  completely  to  a  life 
of  prayer,  and  threw  herself  more  entirely  into  the 
interests  of  Port  Royal.  In  her  house  Antoine  Arnauld 
and  Nicole  found  refuge,  and  the  revision  of  the  trans- 
lation of  the  New  Testament  was  undertaken  in  the 
Hotel  de  Longueville,  and  was  finished  there.  Madame 
de  Longueville  found  Nicole  a  more  agreeable  guest 
than  the  great  Doctor.  On  the  whole,  he  had  better 
manners  and  knew  more  of  the  customs  of  the  great 
world  than  did  Antoine. 

We  have  already  narrated  her  share  (and  it  was  a 
great  one)  in  bringing  about  the  peace  of  the  Church. 
After  this  event,  Madame  de  Longueville  built  herself 
a  small  house  at  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  and  divided 


DEATH  OF  MADAME  DE  LONGUEVILLE  391 

her  time  between  Port  Royal  and  the  Carmelite  Convent 
at  Paris.  But  this  was  not  until  after  the  death  of  her 
favourite  son,  who  fell  in  battle  at  the  famous  passage 
of  the  Rhine  in  the  war  which  Louis  XIV.  had  under- 
taken against  Holland,  on  account  of  "sa  mauvaise 
satisfaction,  sa  gloire  interess^e."  This  son  of  hers, 
the  young  Due  de  Longueville,  seems  to  have  been  a 
gifted  and  charming  person,  and  the  Histoire  de  Port 
Royal  relates  that  before  departing  for  the  campaign,  he 
had  made  his  confession  and  had  distributed  alms. 
Madame  de  Sevigne  has  described  the  grief  of  the 
heart-stricken  mother  in  two  of  her  immortal  letters ; 
there  was,  if  not  intimacy,  at  least  friendship  between 
the  two  illustrious  women. 

The  Prince  and  Princesse  de  Conti's  deaths  were 
great  sorrows,  and  Mademoiselle  de  Vertus  having 
retired  altogether  to  Port  Royal,  the  last  few  years  of 
this  stormy  life  were  very  sad  and  lonely  ;  but  she  never 
wavered  in  the  path  which  led  her  to  the  light,  and  in 
time  the  peace  which  passeth  all  understanding  reigned 
entirely  in  her  heart. 

Conde  was  with  her  at  the  time  of  her  death,  the 
1 5th  April  1679.  She  was  fifty-nine,  and  had  practised 
penitence  and  devotion  for  more  than  twenty  years. 

Sainte  Beuve  rightly  and  beautifully  says  of  her  that 
her  real  crown  of  glory  was  that  wonderful  humility 
which  was  granted  to  her,  and  in  which  she  increased  up 
to  the  day  when  she  laid  down  her  burden  and  passed 
into  the  other  life.  She  was  not  a  learned  or  even  a 
very  clever  woman,  but  she  was  an  excellent  judge  of 
character ;  she  was  kind,  affectionate,  and  loyal  to  her 
friends. 

One  of  the  sternest  of  the  Port  Royal  "  Solitaires" 
wrote  of  her  to  his  sister,  the  Duchesse  d'Epernon  : — 

"  So  Madame  de  Longueyille  has  set  out  on  that  long 
journey — Eternity,  from  which  no  one  returns.  Deaths 
of  this  kind,  deaths  of  people  who  are  of  high  rank  in  the 
world,  and  above  all  when  we  have  lived  in  some  intimacy 
with  those  who  are  gone,  impress  us  for  a  short  time ; 
but  the  impression  soon  passes,  and  we  do  not  try  to 


392  GREAT  LADIES  OF  PORT  ROYAL 

keep  it.  But  for  a  little  while,  nothing  else  will  be  talked 
about.  I  believe  she  is  among  the  blessed,  and  that 
God  has  been  merciful  to  her.  She  loved  the  Church 
and  the  poor  .  .  .  and  I  recall  many  of  her  letters  in  the 
early  days  of  her  conversion,  which  were  full  of  penitence 
and  humility.  She  had  these  always,  and  these  afflic- 
tions which  she  has  endured  during  the  last  year  will 
indeed  have  been  to  her  as  penance." 

The  same  writer l  in  another  letter  says  : — 

"  I  don't  want  to  set  her  up  as  a  Saint  who  has  gone 
from  this  world  straight  to  the  Vision  of  God  ;  all  which 
happens  in  the  other  world  is  hidden  from  us :  but 
nevertheless  it  is  true  that  very  few  persons  in  that 
station  of  life  are  seen  taking  up  her  way  of  life,  and 
remaining  steadfast  to  the  very  end,  in  the  great 
truths  of  religion.  In  absolute  self-disregard,  which  she 
showed  even  in  her  dress,  and  in  unfailing  regularity  in 
duty,  she  has  manifested  all  these.  There  were  in- 
firmities, who  is  without  them  ?  She  saw  and  mourned 
over  them  :  that  is  nearly  all  God  asks  of  us." 

Indeed,  as  Sainte  Beuve  says,  this  letter  is  a  true 
funeral  oration. 

With  her  death  ended  the  short-lived  peace  of  Port 
Royal. 

Port  Royal  had  another  devoted  friend  in  Madame 
de  Sable,  but  she  was  a  friend  who  reserved  the  right 
to  criticise,  and  who  by  no  means  thought  it  a  matter 
of  duty  to  say  with  reference  to  Port  Royal,  "  Do  I  not 
hate  them  that  hate  thee  ? "  She  was,  however,  truly 
devout,  a  true  disciple  of  Port  Royal,  and  her  later 
years  were  marked  by  most  real  humility  and  penitence. 
She  had  many  friends,  but  the  only  one  among  her 
several  special  friends,  who  directly  comes  into  our 
history,  is  Madame  de  Longueville,  and  it  is  to  Madame 
de  Sable  that  we  owe  Madame  de  Longueville.  Madame 
de  Sable  was  twenty  years  older  than  her  friend,  and 
loved  her  from  the  very  day  of  their  meeting.  She  was 
a  faithful  friend  ;  but  little  absurdities,  little  weaknesses, 

1  M.  de  Pontchateau. 


MADAME  DE  SABLfi  393 

clung  to  her  all  her  life — a  taste  for  elegant  and  refined 
cooking,  and  a  morbid  dread  of  infection. 

As  we  know,  Madame  de  Longueville  once  fell  ill  of 
smallpox,  and  some  of  the  scandal-mongering  chroni- 
clers, who  had  a  special  dislike  to  Madame  de  Sable, 
particularly  Tallemant  des  Reaux,  dilated  much  on  the 
friend's  fear  of  the  Hotel  de  Longueville.  Considering 
what  smallpox  was  in  the  seventeenth  century,  even  a 
friend  may  be  pardoned  for  being  a  little  shy  of  visiting 
a  very  recently  recovered  patient ;  but  Madame  de 
Sable's  nervousness  was  ever  a  subject  of  raillery  even 
amongst  her  best  friends.  We  find  in  later  years  the 
grave  and  austere  Mere  Angelique  making  playful 
allusions  to  this  fear. 

Among  the  many  distinguished  and  admirable 
women  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Marquise  de 
Sable  holds  a  prominent  place.  She  did  not  possess 
the  fascination  of  Anne  Genevieve  de  Bourbon 
(Duchesse  de  Longueville),  but,  as  Cousin  says  in  his 
delightful  book  on  Madame  de  Sable,  she  possessed  a 
striking  union  of  gifts,  she  had  understanding,  good 
sense,  kindness  ;  in  a  word,  what  her  age  and  society 
understood  by  "politesse."  Her  special  and  surpassing 
gift  was  to  influence  and  inspire  other  people ;  and  such 
men  as  Rochefoucauld,  Pascal,  Nicole,  looked  up  to 
her,  and  respected  her  judgment. 

Madeleine  de  Souvre  was  the  daughter  of  the 
Marquis  de  Courtenvaux,  and  his  life  and  adventures 
carry  us  back  to  the  troublous  times  of  the  Wars  of 
Religion  and  the  League.  He  died  in  1626.  Madeleine 
was  born  in  1599,  and  was  one  of  seven  children, 
four  sons  and  three  daughters.  One  of  her  grand- 
nieces  married  Louvois,  Louis  XIV.'s  famous  War 
Minister. 

Madeleine  was  a  beautiful  and  witty  girl,  and  was 
described  by  Mademoiselle  de  Scude>y  in  the  famous 
novel  of  the  day,  Le  Grand  Cyrus.  She  was  a  noted 
member  of  the  society  of  which  the  Hotel  de  Rambouil- 
let  was  the  centre,  and  in  fact  influenced  the  tone  of 
that  society  almost  as  much  as  the  gifted  hostess. 


394  GEEAT  LADIES  OF  POET  EOYAL 

"  Elle  devient  done  bien  vite  le  type  de  la  parfaite 
pr^cieuse." 

It  was  said  that  the  brilliant  and  unfortunate  Henri 
de  Montmorency  and  Madame  de  Sable  had  been  much 
attached  to  each  other. 

Madeleine  de  Souvre  married,  in  1614,  Philippe 
Emanuel  de  Laval,  Marquis  de  Sabl6  ;  very  little  seems 
to  be  known  of  him,  but  Mademoiselle  de  Scudery,  in  her 
Grand  Cyrus,  gives  us  to  understand  that  the  marriage 
was  not  a  very  happy  one.  As  M.  Cousin  says : 
"  Mademoiselle  de  Scudery  could  hardly  have  ventured 
to  describe,  under  a  disguise  which  was  no  disguise, 
fictitious  circumstances  in  Madame  de  Sable's  life." 
Madame  de  Sable  retired  to  her  estate  of  Sable, 
and  read,  and  studied,  and  regained  her  health.  She 
had  four  children.  Her  only  daughter  became  a  nun 
in  the  Convent  at  Rouen,  of  which  one  of  Madame 
de  Sable's  sisters  was  the  Abbess ;  one  of  her  three 
sons  became  Bishop  of  La  Rochelle ;  another  son,  the 
Marquis  de  Bois  Dauphin  ;  and  the  third  was  the  hand- 
some and  brave  Guy  de  Laval,  one  of  the  great  Conde's 
gallant  band  of  heroic  friends,  who  was  killed  at  Dunkirk 
in  1646. 

The  loss  of  her  gallant  boy  in  1646  was  a  most 
bitter  grief,  and  there  were  many  troubles  and  various 
vicissitudes.  Madame  de  Sable  was  growing  old,  but 
she  had  not  to  begin,  as  it  were,  a  life  of  devotion ; 
already  in  1640  she  had  written  to  Mere  Angelique 
about  her  spiritual  needs.  For  some  years  after  this 
she  lived  in  the  world  in  a  hotel  in  the  Place  Royal, 
with  her  closest  and  dearest  friend,  the  Comtesse  de 
S.  Maure,  who  herself  was  religious  in  a  quiet  and 
decorous,  not  very  enthusiastic  fashion. 

Madame  de  Sable  made  retreats  at  Port  Royal,  and 
wished  very  much  for  direction  from  M.  Singlin.  Mere 
Angelique  wrote  in  1657  : — 

"  My  very  dear  Sister,  put  away  this  naughty  idea, 
that  it  is  because  he  does  not  care  for  you  that^M. 
Singlin  is  fearful  of  making  advances  :  he  would  be  just 
the  same  for  everyone ;  he  treats  everyone  in  the  same 


MADAME  DE  SABLE  AT  POET  EOYAL  395 

way.  Indifference  is  not  one  of  his  characteristics ;  he 
has,  both  naturally  and  through  grace,  the  best  and 
kindest  of  hearts  in  the  world  ;  and  I  can  assure  you  he 
would  give  his  life  for  your  salvation.  But  God  has 
granted  him  exactly  what  the  knowledge  of  the  grace 
of  Jesus  Christ  would  produce ;  that  is,  humility,  and 
the  sense  of  the  absolute  incapacity  of  the  natural 
man.  .  .  .  That  is  the  reason  why  he  is  always  fearful 
to  make  advances  in  the  direction  of  souls,  lest  he 
should  hurt  instead  of  helping.  .  .  .  Alas,  my  dear, 
we  ought  to  reverence  this  holy  manner  of  acting 
instead  of  being  vexed  by  it.  If  all  directors  acted  in 
this  way,  how  many  ills  they  would  avoid.  But  you 
see,  my  dear,  our  natural  pride  dislikes  this ;  and  ladies 
who  are  accustomed  to  adoration  find  him  terribly 
rough.  .  .  .  Overcome  this  inclination  bravely,  my 
dear;  and  after  having  offered  to  God  your  needs, 
address  yourself  humbly  to  him,  whom  God  has  given 
you,  and  ask  him  to  help  you.  He  will  never  be 
wanting,  so  long  as  God  gives  him  the  power :  be 
assured  of  that,  and  that  he  will  pray  for  you  and  desire 
earnestly  that  God  will  increase  in  you  His  holy  grace." 

In  1655  Madame  de  Sable  built  a  house  within  the 
precincts  of  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  and  lived  a  devotional 
life,  but  was  never  quite  able  to  surmount  her  fears  of 
infection,  her  trifling  ailments,  and  a  good  deal  of  self- 
indulgence.  It  is  wonderful  how  gentle  and  wise  Mere 
Angelique  was.  This  is  one  of  her  letters  : — 

"It  seems  to  me,  dear  Sister,  that  it  is  a  long  time 
since  I  had  the  honour  of  hearing  how  you  are.  So  I 
ask  some  tidings  from  you,  dear  Sister,  wishing  much 
that  they  should  be  good  alike  as  to  the  health  of  your 
soul  and  of  your  body.  I  ask  both  from  God,  with 
great  affection ;  especially  the  latter,  because  I  hope  it 
will  aid  you  to  labour  for  the  first  with  more  courage 
and  care,  by  setting  you  free  from  uneasiness  which 
distracts  you.  ...  It  has  just  come  into  my  head  to 
tell  you  quite  simply  that  it  seems  to  me  you  would  do 
well  to  see  N.  (M.  Singlin),  so  that  you  can  make  your 
confession  and  communicate  on  Sunday,  if  he  allows 
you,  so  that  you  can  ^  prepare  to  spend  the  holy  time 
dedicated  to  our  Lord's  Advent ;  but,  deaf,  please  do 
not  take  this  thought  of  mine  as  an  order,  I  only  mean 


396  GEEAT  LADIES  OF  POET  EOYAL 

it  as  a  simple  suggestion,  so  that  you  can  lay  it  at  times 
before  God  in  order  to  ask  Him  to  give  you  the  wish, 
for  if  He  does  not  speak,  no  good  will  come.  The  day 
is  declining,  my  dear,  and  the  night  is  approaching. 
We  must  lose  no  time  in  preparing  for  the  bright  day 
of  Eternity.  The  best  way  is  to  profit  by  all  troubles 
of  mind  and  of  body,  by  patience,  offering  them  to  God 
as  a  satisfaction  for  our  faults." 

No  doubt,  with  all  her  goodness  and  kindness  of 
heart,  Madame  de  Sable  was  often  a  little  troublesome 
to  the  Mothers  of  Port  Royal,  who  had  enough  troubles 
of  their  own  without  being  forced  to  attend  to  a  great 
lady's  fancies  and  trifling  complaints.  It  is  wonderful 
how  the  stern  Mere  Angelique,  who  spared  neither 
herself  nor  any  of  her  nuns,  sympathised  with  and 
doubtless  influenced  and  trained  Madame  de  Sable. 
Nowhere  does  Mere  Angelique  show  to  better  ad- 
vantage than  in  her  dealings  with  imperfect  souls, 
whether  in  the  world  or  in  the  cloister.  Mere 
Angelique  loved  the  graceful,  accomplished,  fanciful 
lady,  and  wrote  to  her  charming  letters  from  Port 
Royal  des  Champs.  In  one  she  says  (I  quote  from 
M.  Cousin) : — 

"  I  must  really  confess  to  you  that  the  two  last  times 
I  saw  you  I  felt  something  for  you  which  I  never  felt 
before,  which  made  me  feel  your  absence  more  painfully, 
and  the  need  of  submitting  it  to  the  command  of  God. 
It  is  thus  that  I  find  my  strength  in  everything,  and  I 
beg  you  also  to  do  the  same,  'and  to  seek  your 
treasure ' ;  how  much  this  word  has  pleased  me 

SDrobably,  as  Cousin  says,  Madame  de  Sable  had 
erself  used  this  expression],  but  not  so  much  in  reading 
as  in  prayer,  or  rather  by  the  desire  of  the  heart.  .  .  . 
Content  yourself,  my  dearest  Sister,  with  the  New 
Testament.  I  am  so  thankful  our  Lord  has  given  you 
affection  for  it,  for  although  all  Holy  Scripture  is 
equally  worthy  of  love  and  reverence,  the  Holy  Gospel 
of  our  Incarnate  Lord  ought  to  give  us  very  special 
feelings." 

Few  of  the  great  Mother's  letters  are  more  touching 
and  beautifully  simple  than  this,  and  probably  the  friend- 


MADAME  DE  SABL£  AND  HER  FRIENDS  397 

ship  had  not  been  without  good  to  her  own  great  soul ; 
for  to  flow  out  from  the  great  Love  of  God  in  human 
love,  is  always  a  fresh  means  of  grace.  From  Mere 
Agnes  Madame  de  Sable  also  received  many  letters. 

Madame  de  Sable  had  her  weaknesses,  but  want 
of  courage  was  not  one  of  them,  and  as  the  storm  of 
persecution  gathered  round  and  burst  upon  the  Com- 
munity, she  conceived  the  happy  idea  of  enlisting 
Madame  de  Longueville.  We  saw  how  this  was 
accomplished,  and  the  excellent  results  thereof. 

Madame  de  Sable  is  as  closely  connected  with  Port 
Royal  as  her  more  illustrious  friend,  but  nevertheless 
she  did  not  escape  hurting  the  feelings  of  the  sensitive 
Community.  She  had  not  thought  it  necessary  to  take 
a  very  distinct  side,  and  she  had  committed  what  seemed 
to  not  a  few  of  the  Port  Royalists  the  unpardonable 
sin  of  making  her  confessions  to  their  particular  foe, 
1'Abbe  Chamillard.  This  was  a  disloyalty  hard  to 
forgive.  Angelique  de  St  Jean,  who  never  liked 
Madame  de  Sable,  was  really  offended.  M.  d'Andilly 
forgave,  after  some  correspondence.  We  can  quite 
imagine  that  Angelique  de  St  Jean,  who  had  no  spirit 
of  compromise,  whose  fortitude  resembled  obstinacy, 
and  who  had  never  been  able  really  to  endure  any  kind 
of  submission  to  the  signature,  had  little  toleration  for 
the  high-bred,  polished,  graceful,  and  self-indulgent 
lady  who  had  so  many  "rapprochements"  with  the 
world ;  and  under  whose  influence  Rochefoucauld 
had  produced  his  Maxims.  But  in  spite  of  these 
vexations,  Madame  de  Sable  had  a  peaceful  life  in  the 
house  at  Port  Royal  de  Paris. 

She  was  the  centre  of  a  very  distinguished  coterie, 
and  it  is  a  wonderful  tribute  to  her  intellect,  that  such 
a  man  as  Rochefoucauld  should  have  submitted  his 
Maxims  to  her  criticism,  and  that  Pascal  in  rather 
earlier  days  should  have  been  one  of  her  circle. 

M.  de  La  Rochefoucauld  was  not  the  only  "  sayer  of 
sayings."  The  society  of  which  Madame  de  Sable  was 
the  centre  had  conceived  a  great  love  for  maxims  and 
aphorisms,  and  the  gifted  hostess  herself  wrote  a  set  of 


398  GEEAT  LADIES  OF  PORT  EOYAL 

maxims ;  in  fact,  La  Rochefoucauld  submitted  his  own 
to  the  criticism  of  the  company.  It  hardly  comes  into 
our  subject  to  enter  into  any  detailed  examination  of 
the  celebrated  book,  which  was  criticised  by  several 
ladies  of  the  circle;  an  old  friend,  the  Princesse  de 
Guemenee,  wrote  a  penetrating  and  characteristic 
sentence:  "He  judges  every  one  by  himself,"  she 
writes,  observing  that  the  author  concludes  all  men  to 
be  incapable  of  disinterested  kindness.  "  Perhaps  he  is 
right  about  the  great  mass  of  people,  but  assuredly 
there  are  persons  who  desire  nothing  except  to  do  good." 
How  true  is  this  reflection! 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  at  this  time  the  beginning 
of  our  modern  reviews,  and  of  the  system  known  as 
"log-rolling."  Le  Journal  des  Savants  made  its  first 
appearance  in  1665,  and  for  it  Madame  de  Sable  wrote  a 
review  of  the  Maxims,  which  review  the  author  corrected. 
This  is  a  delicious  episode,  and  is  another  proof  that 
human  nature  in  authors,  as  well  as  in  everybody  else, 
is  much  the  same  in  the  seventeenth  as  in  the  twentieth 
century. 

Madame  de  Sable"  did  not  follow  her  friends  to  Port 
Royal  des  Champs,  and,  as  she  was  already  seventy,  one 
can  hardly  wonder  at  her  reluctance.  She  wrote  to  M. 
de  Singlin  to  ask  his  advice  as  to  whether  it  was  a  duty 
to  go  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  where  there  were  no 
doctors.  She  got  very  little  indulgence  from  M.  Singlin, 
who  exhorts  her  either  in  Paris,  or  in  the  country,  to 
retire  from  the  world  and  repent.  "  Remembering  that 
terrifying  word  which  our  Lord  said  to  His  Apostles 
concerning  those  on  whom  the  tower  had  fallen — Except 
ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  perish." 

We  have  said  before,  it  was  the  strength  and  the 
weakness  of  Port  Royalists,  that  they  regarded  the 
world  with  such  profound  horror.  The  Catholic 
Church  is  the  home  for  us  all,  but  Port  Royal  was 
really  only  fitted  for  souls  of  a  particular  type.  Poor 
Madame  de  Sable"  was  living  a  devout  life,  and  the 
supposition  that  she  was  still  unconverted  and  impeni- 
tent seems  somewhat  severe.  How  she  must  have 


MADEMOISELLE  DE  VEETUS         399 

longed  for  Mere  Angdique,  so  wise,  so  bracing,  and  so 
affectionate ! 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  influence  of  her  friend 
Madame  de  S.  Maure  prevented  any  very  great  or 
striking  developments  in  Madame  de  Sable,  both 
before  and  after  Madame  de  S.  Maure's  death.  The 
latter  was  not  a  "  devote,"  nor  a  Jesuit,  nor  a  Jansenist, 
and  she  disliked  the  endless  controversy  on  the 
subject  of  grace.  Madame  de  Sable  lost  this  dearest 
friend  in  1663,  and  this  loss  was  one  of  the  greatest 
of  her  sorrows.  From  that  time  her  intimacy  with 
Madame  de  Longueville  increased,  and  the  kindness 
which  Conde's  sister  manifested  to  her  less  enduring 
friend  is  remarkable. 

And  Madame  de  Sable*  was  not  unworthy  of 
this  friendship.  She  grew  in  the  spiritual  life,  and 
growth  is  the  great  sign  of  a  true  conversion.  The 
Love  of  God  made  up  to  her  in  time  for  the  loss  of 
other  things  of  this  world,  and  for  infirmities  and 
sorrows. 

In  1675  she  died,  and  was  buried  by  her  own  special 
wish  in  the  parish  cemetery,  without  any  of  the 
ceremonies  peculiar  to  her  rank. 

A  few  words  must  be  given  to  Madame  de  Longue- 
ville's  dear  friend,  Mademoiselle  de  Vertus,  daughter 
of  Clarence  de  Bretagne,  Comte  de  Vertus,  who  was 
descended  from  that  famous  Anne  of  Brittany,  Duchess 
of  Brittany  in  her  own  right,  who  married  in  succession 
two  kings  of  France,  Charles  VIII.  and  Louis  XII. 
Mademoiselle  de  Vertus  may  be  reckoned  among  the 
Princesses  of  Port  Royal,  says  Sainte  Beuve. 

She  was  not  happy  in  her  home  surroundings.  Her 
mother,  the  daughter  of  a  noble  who  played  the  part  of 
Figaro  for  Henry  IV.,  was  beautiful  and  reckless,  and 
by  her  ^  adventures,  which  may  be  read  in  Tallement  de 
Reaux's  Chronique  scandaleuse,  seems  to  have  produced 
a  sort  of  Christian  revolt  in  this  daughter.  From  her 
early  youth  Mademoiselle  de  Vertus  led  as  far  as  she 
could  the  life  of  devotion,  and  kept  the  rule  of  St  Bene- 
dict. Her  elder  sister  was  Madame  de  Montbazon, 


400  GEEAT  LADIES  OF  POET  EOYAL 

whom  we  encountered  in  Madame  de  Longueville's 
younger  days. 

The  friendless  girl  was  introduced  into  the  world 
which  had  proved  so  hard  for  Anne  de  Bourbon,  and  we 
know  very  little  of  her  life.  Tallement  talks  of  a  love 
affair  with  La  Rochefoucauld,  but  how  much  truth  there 
is  in  this  we  know  not.  She  seems  in  some  way  or 
another  soon  to  have  become  homeless,  and  to  have 
lived  with  one  or  other  great  lady,  her  detestable  mother 
apparently  doing  nothing  for  her.  A  harbour  of  refuge 
was  opened  to  her  by  Madame  de  Longueville ;  both 
appear  to  have  been  drawn  to  God  at  the  same  time. 

Yet,  poor  woman,  she  was,  although  a  great  lady,  in 
the  painful  position  of  something  very  like  dependence  ; 
a  "vieille  fille"  in  France  at  all  times  is  apt  to  be  in  a 
false  position,  and  a  lady  whose  only  portion  was  a 
pension  granted  to  her  by  Mazarin  and  paid  irregularly, 
was  indeed  to  be  pitied.  But  probably  much  that  was 
disagreeable  in  her  life  disappeared  when  she  was 
established  in  the  Hotel  de  Longueville.  She  was 
clever,  and  possessed  of  real  goodness  of  heart  as  well  as 
of  devotion.  We  saw  how  much  M.  Singlin  was  to  her 
as  well  as  to  Madame  de  Longueville,  and  how  much 
she  too  depended  on  M.  de  Saci.  Indeed  Fontaine 
seems  to  think  that  she  aided  Madame  de  Longueville 
in  her  labours  for  the  peace  of  the  Church  solely  that 
M.  de  Saci  might  be  delivered. 

To  Mademoiselle  de  Vertus'  great  joy,  in  1672,  after 
many  visits  and  Retreats  at  Port  Royal,  she  took  up  her 
final  abode  in  a  small  annex  built  on  to  Madame  de 
Longueville's  house.  Her  health  was  very  bad,  and 
before  she  settled  at  Port  Royal  she  had  been  danger- 
ously ill,  and  she  was  now  over  fifty. 

It  was  she  who  broke  to  Madame  de  Longueville 
the  terrible  news  of  her  son's  death.  Madame  de 
S£vign6  has  set  forth  the  scene  in  one  of  her  most 
brilliant  bits  of  description. 

In  1674  Mademoiselle  de  Vertus  was  allowed  to  wear 
the  habit  of  a  novice  without  being  laid  under  vows. 
Her  health,  which  confined  her  to  bed  for  days  together, 


THE  PEINCESSE  DE  CONTI  401 

prevented  her  Profession.  But  she  dedicated  herself  as 
far  as  she  could  to  a  life  of  true  obedience  and  of  prayer. 
And  indeed  it  seems  as  if  such  provision  for  many  people 
who  for  one  reason  or  another  cannot  enter  the  life  of 
Religion  might  very  well  be  made  in  our  day  and  in  our 
own  Communion. 

M.  de  Saci  performed  the  ceremony  of  clothing-  the 
novice  in  the  usual  way,  with  some  slight  changes. 

She  lived  in  this  perpetual  noviciate  until  1691,  of 
which  time  eleven  years  were  spent  wholly  in  bed. 

M.  Hamon  watched  over  her  health  until  his  death. 
And  as  directors,  M.  de  Saci,  and  after  him  M.  Le 
Tourneux  and  M.  de  Guet,  gave  her  spiritual  aid. 

There  is  a  charming  simplicity  about  her  later  letters, 
a  beautiful  humility.  She  too  shared  the  first  great 
Mere  Angelique's  fear  of  death,  of  God,  and  it  was  M.  de 
Guet,  afterwards  a  celebrated  guide  of  souls,  who 
soothed  and  encouraged  her  in  her  last  days. 

The  Princesse  de  Conti  certainly  must  be  numbered 
among  the  great  ladies  of  Port  Royal.  For  although 
Anne  Maria  Martinozzi  was  not  a  very  intimate  friend 
of  Port  Royal,  she  comes  into  tolerably  close  connection 
with  "les  notres"  through  her  sister-in-law  Madame  de 
Longueville,  through  Pavilion,  the  Bishop  of  Alet,  and 
finally  through  Claude  Lancelot,  to  whom  she  entrusted 
her  boys'  education. 

The  Martinozzi  were  a  noble  Roman  family :  the 
princess's  mother  was  the  sister  of  Mazarin,  and  having 
been  left  a  widow  with  several  daughters  and  not  particu- 
larly large  means,  she  was  thankful  to  send  Anne  Maria 
to  Paris,  where  the  little  girl  of  nine  was  kindly  received 
by  Anne  of  Austria.  Other  sisters  were  also  sent.  Anne 
Maria  was  married  at  sixteen  to  the  Prince  de  Conti, 
younger  brother  of  the  great  Conde.1  Armand  de 
Bourbon,  Prince  de  Conti,  had  a  good  deal  of  mother 
wit,  but  was  absolutely  at  the  mercy  of  anyone  with  a 
stronger  mind  than  his  own  ;  at  the  time  of  the  Fronde 
(for  which  escapade  he  duly  made  his  peace  in  1653)  he 

1  "  Personne  en  effet  n'etait  moins  tentant  comme  epoux  qu' Armand 
de  Conti." 

2c 


402  GREAT  LADIES  OF  PORT  ROYAL 

was  completely  under  the  influence  of  his  sister.  "  M. 
le  Prince  avoit  pour  tout  ce  que  desiroit  sa  sceur  une  si 
grande  deference  qu'il  suivoit  tous  ses  sentiments, 
n'agissoit  que  par  ses  conseils,  ne  vivoit  et  ne  respiroit 
que  pour  elle."1  And  at  the  time  of  his  marriage  he 
was  to  a  large  extent  under  the  influence  of  favourites. 
The  Princesse,  a  mere  girl  of  sixteen,  beautiful,  with  fair 
hair  and  a  graceful  figure,  found  herself  in  a  sufficiently 
difficult  'milieu.  The  Port  Royal  aversion  for  the 
world,  and  the  extreme  doubt  which  so  many  people  felt 
as  to  its  being  possible  for  anyone  in  a  prominent  place 
to  " faire  son  salut"  seem  very  pardonable  when  one 
considers  the  ordinary  atmosphere  of  the  Court,  or 
indeed  of  any  great  person's  household.  The  Princesse 
did  not  greatly  appreciate  the  Abbe  de  Cosnac,  who  had 
found  much  favour  in  Conti's  eyes.  De  Cosnac  repre- 
sents a  certain  type  of  ecclesiastic ;  the  pushing,  by  no 
means  dishonest,  but  absolutely  worldly  person.  He 
himself  came  of  a  very  ancient  family  from  the  south  of 
France,  and  had  set  his  hopes  on  Conti's  influence. 
He  had  no  scruples,  and  used  all  his  powers  to  have 
himself  made  Bishop  of  Valence  at  the  mature  age 
of  twenty-six.  In  the  meantime  Conti,  who  was 
now  Governor  of  Languedoc,  was  growing  jealous. 
Louis  XIV.  had  been  paying  the  Princesse  great 
attentions ;  these  attentions,  however,  seem  to  have 
been  repulsed  with  more  than  sufficient  vigour.  One 
thing  is  clear,  that  Louis  XIV.,  up  to  the  day  of  her 
death,  held  the  Princesse  in  great  esteem. 

The  Princesse  joined  her  husband,  and  found  a 
household  full  of  intrigues,  each  fighting  for  his  own 
hand.  There  was  one  Jacques  Esprit,  who  had  nearly 
taken  orders,  and  who  was  specially  blamed  by  the 
worthy  De  Cosnac  for  having  put  ideas  of  devotion  into 
the  Prince's  head  in  order  to  "me  nuire"  (=  destroy 
me).  A  very  pretty  confession  for  a  Bishop,  and  there 
were  others.  But,  mercifully,  another  influence  was 
brought  into  Conti's  life.  He  received  a  visit  of  pure 

1  Daniel  de  Cosnac  (Memoirs  of\  b.  1630,  d.  1703,  Archbishop  of 
Aix. 


CONVEKSION  OF  THE  DE  CONTI     403 

politeness  from  the  Bishop  of  Alet,  and  it  seemed  to 
him  as  if  he  heard  a  voice  saying"  that  this  was  the  man 
in  whom  he  should  confide.  And  he  obeyed.  Sudden 
conversions  have  never  ceased  to  exist  in  the  Church, 
and  it  is  one  advantage  of  a  Christian  and  Catholic 
education,  that  at  least  a  sinner  who  has  been  brought 
up  in  the  fold  knows  that  he  must  repent,  must  confess, 
must  avail  himself  of  the  means  of  grace ;  Conti  was 
brought  to  a  very  real  and  practical  repentance  by  the 
Bishop.  Like  Zacchaeus,  he  was  to  restore  fourfold. 
The  Bishop  would  not  hurry  matters,  and  as  Conti  was 
obliged  to  return  to  Paris,  M.  d'Alet  placed  him  under 
the  direction  of  M.  de  Ciron,  Chancellor  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Toulouse,  and  it  was  to  him  that  Conti  was 
to  make  his  general  confession. 

De  Ciron,  who  met  Conti  in  Paris,  was  overwhelmed 
with  dismay  at  the  burden  laid  on  him,  but  was 
comforted  by  his  first  interview,  and  seems  to  have  been 
a  most  excellent  spiritual  guide  for  the  sick  soul  of  poor 
Conti,  who  was  ill  in  body  also. 

But  at  first  the  Princesse  was  somewhat  set  against 
her  husband's  conversion.  She  had  learned  nothing  of 
religion  when  she  was  a  child :  her  husband  was  her 
religion.  For  she  was  most  deeply  attached  to  him, 
and  her  letters  breathe  the  most  unbounded  affection. 
In  some  ways  she  was  not  attractive.  She  was  proud, 
reserved,  and  apt  to  betray  the  characteristic  Mazarin 
weakness — avarice.  This  comes  out  very  unpleasantly 
in  a  story  of  De  Cosnac's,  of  how  she  insisted  on  his 
paying  her  a  g-ambling-  debt  which  he  had  thought  a 
jest,  and  at  the  same  time  repudiated  a  debt  which  she 
owed  him.1  And  indeed  her  dislike  to  De  Cosnac, 
much  more  than  love  of  money,  may  have  prompted  her 
to  spite  him ;  she  was  only  nineteen.  Suddenly  she 
told  her  husband  that  she  could  resist  no  longer,  and 
asked  him  to  send  for  M.  de  Ciron.  M.  de  Ciron 
guided  them  both,  to  Mazarin's  great  disgust.  His 
Eminence  informed  Cosnac  that  De  Ciron  was  a 

1  Une  Nihe  de  Mazarin,  par  Edouard  de  Barthelemy,  and  also  Sainte 
Beuve,  vol.  v.,  etc. 


404  GREAT  LADIES  OF  POET  ROYAL 

Jansenist  who  was  exciting  people  in  Paris,  and  said  that 
the  Bastille  was  a  suitable  place  for  such  a  priest,  but 
De  Cosnac  persuaded  the  Cardinal  merely  to  banish 
De  Ciron  to  Toulouse,  his  own  diocese,  which  was  done, 
to  the  Contis'  great  disgust ;  for  this  exile  De  Cosnac 
got  the  credit.  The  Princesse  did  her  best  to  have  him 
sent  to  his  neglected  diocese. 

The  Prince  and  Princesse  paid  a  visit  to,  or  more 
strictly  speaking,  made  a  Retreat  under  M.  d'Alet ; 
the  Princesse  lodged  in  a  Convent  near  the  Palace. 
M.  d'Alet  gave  them  daily  instructions,  and  restrained 
the  impetuous  ardour  which  would  have  led  them  to 
strip  themselves  of  their  worldly  goods,  and  to  lead  the 
lives  of  " religious"  in  the  world.  In  vain  Conti  begged 
to  be  allowed  to  resign  his  office  of  Governor.  He  was 
to  keep  it  and  do  his  best. 

To  Conti  and  his  wife,  after  her  conversion,  was 
shown  the  need  of  restitution  to  the  unfortunate 
provinces  desolated  by  the  second  war  of  the  Fronde. 
The  Princesse  sold  her  jewels  and  parted  with  most  of 
the  wealth  which  she  had  inherited  from  Mazarin.  She 
wished  very  much  to  build  a  convent  for  Carmelites,  and 
to  decorate  a  church,  but  the  Bishop  would  have  none 
of  this  magnificent  devotion,  so  flattering  to  the  person 
who  proposes  it. 

The  Prince  was  as  excessive  in  his  austerity  as  he  had 
been  in  his  dissipation.  He  composed  several  treatises  : 
one,  Trait^  des  Devoirs  des  Grands,  and  another,  Traitt 
de  la  Come'die  et  des  Spectacles  selon  la  Tradition  de  la 
Foi.  He  was  determined  that  a  troop  of  comedians  who 
had  been  playing  as  the  Troupe  de  Bourbon,  should  do 
so  no  longer.  (It  seems  a  pity  that  Moliere  and 
others  should  have  had  to  view  religion  under  so  severe 
an  aspect.)  In  one  of  his  letters  Antoine  Arnauld 
strongly  recommends  the  Mere  du  Fargis  to  advise 
her  niece,  la  Duchesse  de  Lesdiguieres,  to  read  this 
book.  Many  of  his  rules  for  his  household  are  excellent. 
As  for  instance  Rule  XVI.:  "Payer  exactement  mes 
dettes  et  surtout  les  marchands  et  artisans." 

There  are  most  severe  rules  for  the  pages,  who  are 


THE  PRINCE  DE  CONTI'S  DEATH      405 

to  rise  very  early  and  dress  very  quickly,  and  get  into 
chapel  in  good  time  before  the  daily  Mass.  In  their 
recreation  they  are  never  to  play  at  cards,  or  be  present 
at  balls,  or  read  romances.  When  not  engaged  in 
military  exercises,  they  are  to  study  mathematics.  The 
whole  scheme  of  life  proposed  for  them  would  seem  more 
suitable  for  students  in  a  theological  seminary  than  for 
the  gay  young  creatures  one  generally  supposes  the 
pages  attached  to  a  great  household  to  have  been. 

No  Puritan  could  have  been  more  extreme  in  his 
views. 

Another  rule  is  :  "  To  see  that  missions  are  preached 
from  time  to  time  in  places  which  need  them." 

The  Prince  died  in  1666,  and  it  is  odd  that  it  should 
be  said  that  "he  returned  to  the  Church,"  for  he  had 
never  left  it.  Pere  Rapin  (quoted  by  Sainte  Beuve)  origin- 
ates the  story  that  Conti  sent  away  M.  dAlet  from  his 
bedside,  and  declared  that  he  was  absolutely  submissive 
as  to  the  question  of  "  fait "  and  "  droit."  How  much  of 
this  is  true,  is  impossible  to  say.  The  story  does  not 
seem  probable,  but  its  probability  depends  on  the  trust- 
worthiness of  the  evidence.  Now,  in  the  Histoire  de 
Port  Royal  it  is  expressly  stated  that  De  Ciron,  who 
on  the  news  of  the  Prince's  illness  had  come  to  the 
Chateau  de  la  Grange  near  Pezenas,  where  Conti  was, 
received  his  last  breath.  It  is  possible  that  some 
zealous  priest  had  found  his  way  into  Conti's  room,  and 
had  asked  the  Prince  before  De  Ciron's  arrival  whether 
he  renounced  his  supposed  errors.  A  very  slight  expres- 
sion of  submission  to  the  Church,  of  which  he  was  and 
always  had  been  a  dutiful  son,  could  easily  and  with  no 
bad  intention  be  twisted  into  what  would  pass  for  a 
recantation. 

In  1664  Conti  had  been  very  ill  in  Paris,  and  the 
parish  priest  of  Saint  Sulpice,  on  bringing  him  the 
Sacrament,  had  tried  to  induce  him  to  cease  to  be  under 
the  direction  of  M.  dAlet.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
it  was  in  St  Sulpice  that  absolution  had  been  refused 
to  M.  de  Liancourt.  The  Prince  de  Conti  abso- 
lutely refused,  and  said  that  he  would  rather  die  with- 


406  GREAT  LADIES  OF  PORT  ROYAL 

out  the  Sacrament  than  give  up  such  a  saint  as  M. 
d'Alet. 

We  must  leave  this  matter ;  only,  it  is  odd  to  see 
with  what  extraordinary  rancour  many  writers  mention 
anyone  even  remotely  attached  to  Port  Royal,  how 
eager  some  are  to  speak  of  the  sect  of  the  Jansenists,  as 
if  some  new  religious  body  had  been  formed. 

The  Port  Royalists  and  their  friends  were  from  first 
to  last  loyal  Catholics,  and  had  no  more  intention  of 
leaving  the  Catholic  Church  than  had  St  Francois  de 
Sales  when  he  spoke  to  Mere  Angelique  of  the  evils 
which  were  sapping  the  life  of  the  Church. 

The  Princesse  de  Conti  began  at  twenty-nine  the 
devoted  and  dedicated  life  of  a  Christian  widow.  She 
loved  to  write  of  herself  as  "Fabiole" — after  St 
Jerome's  friend  and  helper.  She  was  tormented  by 
terrible  ill-health,  which  indeed  cut  short  her  life. 
She  lived  chiefly  at  Bouchet,  a  beautiful  Chateau 
between  Paris  and  Fontainebleau. 

It  is  touching  to  read  of  this  grave,  reserved  lady 
visiting  the  sick,  and  attending  to  people  whom  she 
would  certainly  have  shrunk  from  not  many  years 
before.  And  one  almost  smiles  at  the  sad,  scrupulous 
soul  which  tormented  itself  as  to  whether  the  ordinary 
compliments  and  politenesses  of  society  were  not  wrong. 
She  is  wanting  in  all  the  charm  and  grace  which  made 
her  sister-in-law  so  lovable,  but  she  has  great  qualities 
of  strength,  of  steadfastness,  and  of  sincerity.  Madame 
de  Sevigne  calls  her  and  Madame  de  Longueville  the 
Mothers  of  the  Church.  Together  they  worked  to 
bring  about  the  peace  of  the  Church ;  and  the  libera- 
tion of  De  Saci  was  probably  due  principally  to  the 
Princesse  de  Conti. 

To  Claude  Lancelot,  who  had  just  finished  the 
education  of  the  Due  de  Chevreuse,  were  entrusted  the 
two  young  Conti  princes.  These  were  Louis  Armand, 
b.  1661,  and  Francois  Louis,  b.  1664.  Lancelot  wrote 
an  interesting  letter  to  M.  de  Saci  describing  the 
education  of  the  little  boys.  He  seems  to  have  begun 
his  work  in  1670.  They  worked  a  good  many  hours — 


LANCELOT  TUTOE  TO  YOUNG  CONTIS    407 

poor  little  mites — but  they  had  hours  of  play ;  the  good 
Lancelot  describes  his  excellent  system  of  teaching; 
how  they  read  a  modern  Latin  book  of  letters  which 
he  translated  into  French  and  made  them  turn  back 
into  Latin,  exercising  them  in  a  conversational  way  on 
this  ;  how  the  elder  learned  quite  a  large  number  of  lines 
of  Virgil ;  and  how  he  taught  them  history.  These  tiny 
boys  were  taught  dancing  and  fencing,  for  the  Princesse 
had  more  sense  than  poor  Conti,  and  knew  that  boys  in 
their  position  must  learn  to  bow,  and  to  hold  themselves 
properly.  And  then  walks,  what  Claude  calls  "ascents 
of  mountains,"  little  hillocks  we  suppose  ;  daily  visits  to 
their  mother,  probably  visits  to  Paris,  Mass  two  or 
three  times  a  week,  and  much  care  about  their  daily 
prayer  and  their  Sunday  attendance  at  the  High  Mass, 
and  Vespers  and  the  Sunday  lessons.  They  seem 
always  to  have  had  the  Gospel  and  Epistle  for  the  day 
explained  to  them  before  Mass,  and  on  Sunday  evenings 
Lancelot  taught  them  the  Catechism,  and  explained  the 
Mysteries  of  the  Faith  to  them  as  he  thought  suitable 
for  their  age.  It  is  a  pleasant  picture,  but  one  wonders 
if  Lancelot  was  really  happy  in  these  great  houses.  In 
the  same  letter  he  says  rather  sadly,  "It  is  difficult  for 
anyone  to  make  children  respect  their  teacher,  when  the 
profession  of  a  teacher  is  despised."  Was  "Madame" 
kind  to  the  now  not  very  young,  obscure  tutor,  who  was 
only  in  minor  orders,  who  had  once  been  the  favourite 
pupil  of  St  Cyran — in  those  now  distant  days  when  the 
little  band  of  St  Cyran's  disciples  taught  in  Les  Petites 
E coles,  and  perhaps  dreamed  dreams  of  what  might 
come  to  pass  ?  It  is  pathetic  to  find  Lancelot  here. 

His  stay  at  Bouchet  was  not  long,  for  the  Princesse 
de  Conti  died  very  suddenly  in  1672,  of  apoplexy.  She 
never  rallied  from  the  first  attack.  Madame  de  Sevigne" 
gives  a  description  of  the  rough  way  in  which  the  poor 
little  Princesse  was  treated  in  order  to  restore  conscious- 
ness. "C'est  a  dire  que  si  les  pauvres  patients  ne 
mouroient  pas  de  1'apoplexie,  ils  seroient  a  plaindre  de 
1'etat  ou  on  les  met ! " 

Madame  de  Longueville  was  appointed  guardian ;  it 


408  GEEAT  LADIES  OF  POET  EOYAL 

is  strange  that  she  could  not  have  retained  Lancelot  as 
the  boys'  tutor.  He  made  objections  to  the  boys  being 
taken  to  the  theatre,  so  was  sent  about  his  business. 
He  ceased  to  instruct  the  sons  of  the  great,  retired  to 
the  Abbey  of  St  Cyran,  and  became  a  Benedictine. 

Of  Jeanne  de  Schomberg,  Duchesse  de  Liancourt, 
we  have  already  spoken  (p.  235). 

There  were  several  other  ladies  who  sought  in  a 
more  or  less  close  connection  with  Port  Royal  the 
solitude  for  which  many  souls  learn  to  long. 

"Qui  done/'  says  Montalembert,  "a  moins  d'etre 
completement  deprave  par  le  vice  ou  appesanti  par  Tage 
et  la  cupidite,  n'a  pas  eprouve  une  fois  au  moins  avant 
de  mourir  1'attrait  de  la  solitude  ?  " 1  The  lesson  which 
Port  Royal  taught  was  the  overwhelming  necessity  of 
penitence,  and  it  seems  that  if  another  such  Com- 
munity could  spring  up  amongst  us  of  the  Anglican 
Communion,  preaching  the  same  lesson  to  the  great 
ones  of  the  world,  again  the  same  phenomena  would 
be  seen  —  of  repentance  and  of  retirement  from 
worldly  ambition,  if  not  from  work.  Indeed,  they  are 
not  wholly  absent  now.  But  it  is  chiefly  good  people 
who  desire  to  give  themselves  more  completely  to  God 
or  who  long  to  work  for  their  brethren,  who  retire  to 
convents  or  settlements.  We  have  not  yet  understood 
that  many  need  to  learn  the  lessons  of  the  Gospel  from 
the  beginning,  and  to  cultivate  the  gardens  of  their  own 
souls  in  solitude  and  penitence. 

1  Les  Moines  cFOccident,  vol.  i.,  Introduction. 


Z.LMeme&des 

E.  cSt&ftzfy'e  i/t'  J"-  2  /u/'ijt//,'/  N.  l/iftfift'/'tc 

F.  M.it. --en  JeM.itcS'^Wai  t/u-  O -.' '<>//--.   <A-..  .v...   ^ 
<^.  ( r  /-</////<:•  i  Frt\-Httnimi.  ,-/<&>  I'm;  P  •  f '<"/.v/,'/vVv- 


PLAN  OF  THE  ABBEY  OF  PORT  ROYAL  DES  CHAMPS. 

[Y'o  /ace  p.  408. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  AUTUMN   OF   PORT   ROYAL  (1669-1679) 

SAINTE  BEUVE  says,  at  the  beginning-  of  the  fifth 
volume  of  his  history,  that  if  any  one  had  announced 
to  the  Port  Royalists  in  1669  that  the  last  days  of 
summer  were  passing-  for  them  and  that  the  period  of 
decay  had  beg-un,  the  speaker  would  not  have  been 
believed. 

Everything-  seemed  prosperous  at  first.  M.  de 
Pomponne,  M.  d'Andilly's  second  son,  had  been 
chosen  by  Louis  XIV.  as  Secretary  of  State;  the 
offer  was  made  by  the  king  in  a  letter  written  by  Louis's 
own  hand.  M.  d'Andilly  himself  basked  in  royal 
favour,  and  did  not  at  once  return  to  Port  Royal ;  he 
had  for  years  enjoyed  the  pleasures  of  friendship,  of 
conversation  with  delightful  people :  he  was  much 
beloved.  Madame  de  Sevigne  gives  a  charming- 
description  of  a  gathering  at  a  friend's  house  where 
she  was  sitting  with  M.  d'Andilly,  "  a  ma  main  gauche, 
c'est  a  dire  a  mon  cceur " ;  this  was  written  to  M.  de 
Pomponne,  who  was  a  great  friend  of  hers.  She  also 
describes  to  her  daughter  the  reception  given  to  M. 
d'Andilly  by  Louis  XIV.,  who  was  all  that  a  loyal 
subject  could  have  wished  him  to  be.  The  old  man 
was  quite  dazzled,  and  no  wonder.  It  is  difficult  for 
us  in  this  democratic  age  to  put  ourselves  into  the 
attitude  of  loyal  subjects  of  Louis  XIV. 

In  1673  d'Andilly  returned  to  Port  Royal  with  his 
son,  M.  de  Luzanci,  and  began  again  the  life  of  study 
and  of  prayer.  Everything  was  happy — to  all  appear- 
ance. M.  Nicole  and  M.  de  Sainte  Marthe,  indeed, 

409 


410  THE  AUTUMN  OF  POET  ROYAL 

thought  that  Port  Royal  was  not  retired  enough,  that 
there  were  too  many  carriages  to  be  seen  driving 
thither,  too  many  great  people.  Madame  de  Longue- 
ville  and  Mademoiselle  de  Vertus  established  themselves 
in  little  houses  built  quite  near  the  Convent.  The 
Mere  du  Fargis  was  elected  Abbess,  and  Angelique 
de  St  Jean,  Prioress. 

There  were  no  more  schools  for  boys,  but  girls 
were  received,  and  a  third  generation  of  Arnaulds 
arrived  in  the  persons  of  two  daughters  of  M.  de 
Pomponne. 

M.  de  Saci  and  M.  de  Sainte  Marthe  were  the  con- 
fessors. 

Agnes  Arnauld  was  soon  to  lay  down  her  burden. 
She  passed  away  after  a  sharp,  short  illness  on  the  igth 
of  February  1671,  after  seventy  years  of  life  in  Religion. 
Indeed,  the  history  of  Port  Royal  is  Agnes's  history. 
She  indeed  escaped  the  misfortunes  which  overtook 
Mere  Angelique  in  the  unhappy  Zamet  period,  as  she 
was  sent  to  Tard  near  Dijon,  and  was  elected  Abbess 
there ;  but  except  for  that  short  interval  of  six  years, 
Agnes  spent  all  her  Religious  Life  at  Port  Royal  des 
Champs  or  Port  Royal  de  Paris. 

Her  illustrious  niece  wrote  of  her  that,  "in  Mere 
Agnes  were  to  be  ever  seen  a  steady  calmness,  an 
unvarying  wisdom,  a  gravity  which  was  united  with  a 
sweetness  which  inspired  truth  and  respect ;  she  taught 
as  much  by  example  as  by  words."  Angelique  de  St 
Jean  wrote  also  a  memoir  entitled  Portrait  de  la  Mere 
Catherine  Agnes.  In  this  she  says  :  "The  whole  earth 
for  her  was  full  of  the  Majesty  of  God.  She  saw  Him, 
and  adored  Him,  everywhere." 

Agnes  was  always  calm ;  death  had  no  terrors  for 
her.  She  lay  down  to  rest  aided  by  her  dearly  loved 
nephew,  De  Saci.  Her  redoubtable  brother,  Antoine 
Arnauld,  arrived  at  Port  Royal  after  her  death.  His 
funeral  oration  was  very  fine.  He  took  the  Trans- 
figuration, the  Gospel  for  the  second  Sunday  in 
Lent  in  the  Roman  use,  and  reminding  the  Sisters 
that  all  that  is  said  of  the  Master  is  said  of  the 


AR.MERE  CATHERINE  AGNLS  DL  S.PAVLAKNAVIJ)  cv  d 


[To  /ace  p    410. 


DEATH  OF  MfiRE  AGN&S  411 

servant,  he  applied  the  Gospel  of  the  Transfiguration 
to  her. 

It  was  Agnes  who  wrote  the  Constitutions  of 
Port  Royal,  which  she  carried  out  so  fully  in  her  own 
beautiful  life. 

As  we  saw  long-  ago  in  the  time  of  the  Chapelet 
Secret  du  Saint  Sacrement>  Agnes  united  strong 
common-sense  with  a  touch  of  mysticism,  and  about  her 
letters  and  herself  hangs  a  perfume  of  grace  and  of 
unction.  She  possessed  a  real  literary  gift,  a  touch  of 
poetic  fervour.  M.  Faugere's  delightful  preface  to  the 
two  volumes  of  Agnes's  Letters  should  be  read  by  any 
who  wish  to  see  a  just  appreciation  of  Agnes,  who  in  no 
way  came  behind  her  great  sister. 

She  was  laid  in  the  choir  of  the  church,  and 
opposite  to  her  grave  was  buried  the  heart  of  her 
illustrious  sister  Mere  Angelique,  whose  body  was 
left  in  Port  Royal  de  Paris. 

The  book  of  Mere  Agnes,  The  Picture  of  a  Perfect 
and  of  an  Imperfect  Religious,  would  be  edifying  for  any 
Community  to  read.  The  Mother  gives  the  most 
beautiful  and  inspiring  directions  to  aid  the  Sisters  in 
saying  Offices,  and  for  prayers  to  be  said  when 
kneeling  before  the  Holy  Sacrament. 

"To  be  present  at  the  Celebration,  or  before  the 
Sacrament  is  a  species  of  Communion ;  in  which  the 
soul  should  lose  itself  in  God,  in  a  way  that  only  His 
Holy  Spirit  can  bring  about  or  teach  us.  .  .  As  you  are 
not  before  the  Tabernacle  simply  for  yourself,  but  ^also 
for  the  whole  Church,  and  as  you  have  other  times 
for  thinking  of  yourself,  you  ought  chiefly  to  use  this 
period  for  praying  for  the  whole  Church,  and  for  all 
the  children  of  Jesus  Christ,  remembering  the  worship 
they  should  give  Him,  and  the  sense  they  ought  to 
have  of  their  own  needs,  which  most  of  them  are  not 
able  to  do  for  themselves." 

But  Agnes  goes  on  to  say  that  if  the  Sister  feels 
overwhelmed  by  her  own  frequent  falls,  and  longs  to 
pray  for  herself,  she  may  do  so ;  for  her  imperfections 
are  part  of  the  Church's  imperfections,  and  the  getting 


412  THE  AUTUMN  OF  POET  ROYAL 

rid  of  one's  own  imperfections  is  a  contribution  to  the 
Church's  perfection. 

She  reminds  them  that  if  a  Sister  is  called  to  the 
sick,  she  should  be  as  glad  to  perform  this  office  as  she 
is  to  take  a  share  of  the  never-ceasing  prayer  before  the 
Holy  Sacrament. 

And  the  Sister,  though  she  may  occupy  herself  by 
saying  her  Office,  must  never  hesitate  to  break  it  off 
and  attend  to  the  needs  of  an  invalid,  which  needs  she 
must  try  to  anticipate.1 

The  Mother's  instructions  on  mental  prayer  are 
edifying.  She  is  very  insistent  on  the  need  of  quietness 
in  prayer  (this  does  not  mean  Quietism),  and  of  the  need 
of  faith  in  the  willingness  of  Christ  to  impart  His  grace. 

'You  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  keep  yourself  open 
to  Him,  and  as  a  dry  land  which  seeks  the  water  of 
His  Grace — as  a  sick  person  coming  to  his  physician, 
as  a  disciple  seeking  the  Master,  and  as  a  feeble  being 
attacked  by  enemies  and  seeking  the  protection  of 
God,  who  longs  to  shelter  under  His  Wings." 

She  tries  to  convince  her  children  that  the  work  of 
prayer  is  not  a  search  for  beautiful  thoughts,  but  a 
perpetual  effort  to  keep  one's  mind  in  absolute  sim- 
plicity. 

In  common  with  all  others  who  have  thought  deeply 
on  prayer,  she  warns  the  Sisters  that  it  is  want  of 
recollection,  it  is  the  letting  oneself  be  too  much 
distracted  by  outward  things,  which  hinder  fervent 
prayer. 

And  she  says  excellent  words  as  to  how  a  "  religieuse 
parfaite  "  should  bear  dryness  in  prayer,  and  that  it  is 
good  at  these  times  to  use  verses  of  Psalms  and  of  the 
Gospels. 

Her  directions  as  to  work  and  the  keeping  of  silence 
are  admirable;  and  Agnes  reminds  her  Sisters  that 
a  special  remembrance  is  attached  to  each  Office.2 

1  The   most   devout   of    us   nowadays    would   prefer   to  be   nursed 
by  people  who  said  their  Offices  outside  our  rooms. 

2  It  seems  a  pity  that  in  saying  the  Offices  of  Terce,  Sext,  None,  the 
special  remembrance  of  the  Passion  is  not  invariably  made. 


MERE  AGNES'S  INSTRUCTIONS       413 

Mass  was  always  said  after  Terce,  and  afterwards 
half  an  hour  was  spent  in  reading. 

The  words  on  the  Conferences  of  the  Chapter,  on 
the  kind  of  faults  to  be  noticed,  all  breathe  the  same 
desire  for  perfection,  for  no  thought  except  the  one  of 
pleasing*  God. 

The  whole  day  is  considered  by  the  Mother,  and 
advice  for  every  moment,  and  sacrament,  and  office  is 
given. 

She  also  wrote  some  beautiful  devotions  on  the 
Passion,  and  a  set  of  Occupations  Interieures  for  the 
benefit  of  the  lay  Sisters.  She  gives  them  explanations 
of  each  of  the  petitions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  of  all 
the  Mysteries  of  the  Passion. 

She  concludes  with  a  set  of  maxims  or  directions, 
which  she  calls  Manuel  des  Ames  Religieuses.  They 
are  most  edifying.  Here  are  two:  " Avoid  as  much 
as  you  can  great  people,  in  great  positions,  and 
remember  the  world  is  very  contagious."  (Le  monde 
est  bien  contagieux.) 

"You  must  think  of  'Religion'  as  being  a  Sacred 
School  which  you  have  entered,  to  learn  in^  it  with 
greater  facility  to  love  God,  and  to  serve  Him  by^a 
continual  outpouring  of  love,  humility,  and  obedience." 

Du  Fosse's  Memoirs  provide  us  with  many  inter- 
esting details  of  the  life  at  this  time.  His  mother  left 
Normandy  and  took  up  her  abode  with  him  and  his 
brother,  who  was  known  as  M.  Le  Sieur  de  Borroger. 
It  is  so  rare  to  find  anything  like  interest  in  ordinary 
human  affairs,  among  the  race  of  true  Port  Royalists, 
that  Du  Fosse's  account  of  his  brother's  marriage  is 
most  consolatory,  although  the  affair  is  destitute  of  any 
suspicion  of  romance.  The  bride  selected  for  M.  de 
Borroger  was  the  daughter  of  M.  Jean  le  Maitre,  a 
brother  of  M.  de  Saci,  who  was  usually  known  as  M. 
de  Sainte  Elme,  and  the  young  lady  was  styled  the 
Demoiselle  de  Sericourt. 

There  were  various  small  vexations,  which  are  most 
amusing  to  read  about.  M.  du  Fosse,  who  was  con- 


414  THE  AUTUMN  OF  POET  ROYAL 

ducting  the  affair,  "selon  les  regies,"  wrote  a  letter  to 
M.  de  Saci,  who  received  it  as  he  was  about  to  hear 
confessions,  put  the  letter  into  his  pocket,  and  promptly 
forgot  all  about  it.  Weeks  passed  away,  and  the 
perplexity  of  the  Du  Fosse  family  was  great,  when  at 
last  M.  de  Saci  found  the  letter  and  all  went  on 
smoothly.  But  the  bride  had  not  been  consulted  at  all, 
and  her  dismay  was  great.  She  had  been  educated  at 
Port  Royal,  and  she  regarded  the  household  of  the  Du 
Fosses  as  a  little  bit  of  Port  Royal  in  the  world.  She 
cried  a  great  deal,  but  her  relations  simply  told  her  that 
M.  de  Borroger  or  Port  Royal  itself  must  be  her  portion 
— so  she  chose  M.  Thomas  du  Fosse  as  a  pis  aller. 
They  were  married  in  1677  by  the  great  Arnauld,  who 
preached  them  a  most  eloquent  sermon,  and  the 
marriage  seems  to  have  been  happy.  Madame  de 
Borroger  was,  it  is  said,  an  example  to  all  Christian 
matrons.  We  find  a  pleasing  account  by  Du  Fosse, 
of  a  journey  with  his  brother  and  sister-in-law  to  visit 
her  great-uncle,  the  Bishop  of  Angers. 

The  Borrogers  seem  to  have  been  very  fond  of  M. 
du  Fosse  ;  after  his  mother's  death  they  persuaded  him 
to  live  with  them. 

Madame  de  Sevigne  paid  one  or  two  visits  to  Port 
Royal.  An  uncle  of  hers,  Charles  de  Sevigne,  was  one 
of  the  Solitaires  ;  this  same  Charles  had  been  a  soldier, 
and  on  one  of  his  campaigns,  after  the  sacking  of  a  town,  a 
poor  little  girl  of  three  or  four  years  had  by  some  chance 
been  found  by  him.  He  took  her  up  in  his  arms,  rolled 
her  up  in  his  soldier's  cloak,  and  resolved  to  take  care  of 
her.  And  the  brave  and  chivalrous  soldier  kept  his 
resolution  faithfully.  The  child  grew  up  and  in  due 
time  became  a  nun. 

Dom  Clermencet  says  :  "  A  very  few  years  after  this 
he  experienced  the  truth  of  the  promise  of  our  Lord, 
that  what  is  given  to  Him  in  the  person  of  the  least  of 
His  little  ones,  is  repaid."  Sevigne  was  converted  by 
and  by,  and  was  attracted  to  a  life  of  penitence,  which 
he  led,  first  at  Port  Royal  de  Paris  and  then  at  Port 
Royal  des  Champs. 


M.  DE  SEVIGK6  415 

Sevigne  is  a  most  lovable  person,  simple,  sincere, 
full  of  real  personal  adoration  for  our  Lord  as  the  Good 
Shepherd  who  seeks  and  finds  the  wandering  sheep. 
He  always  had  in  his  Oratory  a  picture  of  the  Good 
Shepherd.  He  was  a  close  friend  of  Port  Royal  through 
good  report  and  evil  report,  and  was  constantly  doing 
acts  of  kindness  for  his  friends  large  and  small ;  amongst 
others,  he  built  a  new  Cloister  for  Port  Royal  des 
Champs.  He  was,  as  Sainte  Beuve  says,  the  true  and 
chivalrous  knight  of  Port  Royal. 

Madame  de  Sevigne  writes  in  January  1674  : — 

"  Le  Port  Royal  est  une  Thebaide,  c'est  un  paradis  ; 
c'est  un  desert  oil  toute  la  devotion  du  Christianisme 
s'est  rangee ;  c'est  une  saintete  repandue  >  dans  tout 
le  pays,  a  une  lieu  a  la  ronde.  II  y  a  cinq  ou  six  solitaires 
qu'on  ne  connait  point,  qui  vivent  comme  les  penitents 
de  Saint  Jean-Climaque,  les  religieuses  sont  des  anges 
sur  terre." 

Madame  de  Sevign6  does  not  seem  to  have 
had  much  talk  with  her  uncle  when  she  paid  her 
visits. 

It  is  in  the  same  letter  that  she  describes  Port  Royal 
des  Champs:  "C'est  un  vallon  affreux,  tout  propre  a 
inspirer  le  gout  de  faire  son  salut." 

Sainte  Beuve  quotes  a  gorgeous  description  written 
by  a  priest,  one  Pere  Comblat,  who  evidently  regarded 
Port  Royal  as  already  a  sacred  place  of  pilgrimage,  and 
gives  to  his  burst  of  admiration  a  delicious  touch  of 
exaggeration  ;  he  was  from  the  south  of  France  and  had 
the  fervour  of  the  south. 

Mademoiselle  de  Vertus  is  transformed  into  a  Breton 
Princesse,  and  the  beloved  physician  Hamon  has  left 
the  Court  for  Port  Royal,  and  in  addition  to  all  this, 
there  is  mysterious  wealth  in  the  convent  brought  by 
huge  dowries.  But  when  he  comes  to  describe  the 
services,  he,  as  Sainte  Beuve  points  out,  marks  a 
characteristic  which  has  always  been  impressed  on  the 
close  observers  of  Port  Royal — the  grave,  deep  piety 
with  which  the  Offices  were  said. 


416  THE  AUTUMN  OF  POET  ROYAL 

"  I  do  not  know  how  to  speak  of  the  Divine  Office, 
which  they  did  not  render  in  the  manner  of  women,  but 
rather  in  that  of  angels  :  for  what  particularly  delighted 
me,  was  that  these  holy  souls  understood  so  perfectly 
what  they  said  and  gave  the  right  tones  and  modulations 
of  the  voice  to  all  that  they  sang  in  such  a  way  that 
their  voices  spoke  to  the  heart  more  wonderfully  even 
than  to  the  ear.  .  .  .  They  sing  the  ordinary  Roman 
Plain  Song,  according  to  the  use  of  Paris,  as  they  are 
in  that  diocese.  ...  I  was  told  that  when  people  come 
to  them  with  affected  and  'worldly  voices/  they  are  not 
allowed  to  sing  for  three  or  four  months  until  they  have 
learnt  to  listen.  ..." 

And  he  also  remarks  with  great  delight  the  beautiful 
and  distinct  reading  which  prevailed  in  the  Community. 

Cardinal  de  Retz l  visited  Port  Royal  in  1674, 
probably  to  see  M.  d'Andilly;  De  Retz  was  certainly 
not  the  sort  of  person  whom  our  friends  would  have 
delighted  to  honour  had  they  not  some  reason  to 
believe  in  a  change  which  it  seems  certain  he  had 
undergone.  How  far  he  was  converted  in  the  Christian 
sense  cannot  be  known. 

M.  d'Andilly  passed  away,  surrounded  by  his 
children  and  grandchildren,  in  September  1674.  He 
is  the  Patriarch  of  Port  Royal ;  the  constant  friend  in 
good  days  and  bad  days,  the  brother  and  father  of 
many  of  the  nuns.  D'Andilly  may  have  been  glad 
when  Louis  XIV.  was  gracious,  but  he  never  feared  to 
displease  the  king  by  his  attachment  to  Port  Royal. 
He  shared  to  the  full  the  absolute  independence  which 
was  so  characteristic  of  Port  Royal,  and  which  was 
perhaps  the  chief  reason  why  Louis  XIV.  hated  it  so 
frankly  and  freely.  It  is  impossible  not  to  share 
Madame  de  Sevigne's  affection  for  M.  d'Andilly. 
There  is  not  one  of  the  Arnaulds  quite  so  lovable  and 
human,  and  as  he  gets  older  he  grows  in  all  good 
qualities ;  he  never  lost  the  geniality,  the  courtesy,  the 
savoir  vivre  which  had  made  for  him  so  many  friends. 
He  died  with  the  Nunc  Dimittis  on  his  lips.  We  feel 
that  he  is  almost  the  last  of  the  great  ones  of  the  first 

1  See  Ste  BeuvJs  Port  Royal^  vol.  v.,  Appendix,  Sur  Cardinal  de  Retz. 


NICOLE  417 

generation.  No  one  now  is  left  except  De  Saci,  and  the 
gentle,  gracious,  shrinking  Fontaine,  and  Lancelot. 
Antoine  Arnauld  and  the  rest  are  not  of  the  first  race, 
and  have  not  exactly  followed  the  path  indicated  by 
St  Cyran. 

It  gives  a  real  pain  to  one's  heart  to  say  good-bye  to 
M.  d'Andilly.  His  brother  Antoine  sang  the  funeral 
mass,  said  the  burial  service,  and  pronounced  a  funeral 
oration  which  can  be  read  in  Antoine  Arnauld's  letters. 

It  is  now  a  suitable  time  to  give  a  short  account  of 
Pierre  Nicole,  Antoine  Arnauld's  friend. 

Nicole  was  born  at  Chartres  in  1628,  and  was  the 
son  of  an  avocat.  He  had  three  sisters,  two  of  whom 
entered  the  Religious  Life. 

Jean  Nicole,  the  father,  was  an  excellent  classical 
scholar,  and  from  him  Pierre  inherited  the  literary 
tastes  which  were  so  strongly  marked  in  him. 

Nicole  studied  at  the  Sorbonne,  and  began  his 
literary  career  by  a  bit  of  controversial  work  directed 
against  M.  de  Barcos,  St  Cyran's  nephew,  who  had 
written  a  Treatise  Sur  la  Grandeur  de  r  Eglise  de 
Rome;  Nicole  thus  put  himself  as  it  were  against  Port 
Royal.  He  had  other  links,  however,  with  that  Com- 
munity— one  of  his  sisters,  who  was  to  him  what 
Euphemie  Pascal  had  been  to  her  great  brother,  was 
a  nun  at  Port  Royal,  and  Mere  Marie  des  Anges,  whose 
story  has  already  been  told,  was  his  aunt. 

Nicole's  career  was  successful,  and  his  thesis  for  his 
Bachelor's  degree  was  well  spoken  of.  About  this 
time,  probably  through  his  aunt,  he  began  to  teach  in 
the  Port  Royal  schools  and  to  prepare  for  his  Doctor's 
degree.  But  the  troubles  which  were  thickening  round 
the  Faculty  of  Theology,  the  controversies  on  Grace, 
and  the  affair  of  the  Five  Propositions,  caused  him  to 
renounce  further  distinction  with  the  self-effacement  so 
characteristic  of  all  the  Port  Royalists,  and  to  retire  to 
Port  Royal  and  teach  in  the  Petites  Ecoles.  In  1654 
Antoine  Arnauld  took  possession  of  him,  and  the 
intimacy  between  the  two  began  which  was  destined 
to  last  for  many  years. 

2D 


418  THE  AUTUMN  OF  PORT  ROYAL 

From  that  moment  Nicole  was  hardly  ever  without 
a  pen  in  his  hand.  For  a  considerable  time  he  and 
Arnauld  lived  under  the  roof  of  Madame  de  Longueville, 
insisting  however  on  paying  their  own  expenses,  and 
only  consenting  to  owe  her  the  benefit  of  shelter  and 
security. 

Nicole  saw  much  of  Pascal  in  those  days,  and 
translated  the  Provincial  Letters  into  Latin.  We  have 
already  noticed  the  Apologie  pour  les  Religieuses  de 
Port  Royal,  and  also  the  Lettres  Imaginaires  and  the 
Lettres  Visionaires.  He  composed  a  small  volume  on 
the  Eucharist  which  was  generally  known  as  La  Petite 
Perpetuity,  for  it  grew  into  the  three  large  volumes 
called  La  Perpetuity  de  la  Foi. 

Nicole's  most  considerable  literary  work  is  his 
Essais  de  Morale,  a  book  probably  more  praised  than 
read  nowadays. 

The  Essais  de  Morale  are  not  in  any  one  particular 
order,  or  formed  on  any  definite  plan,  but  are  reflections 
on  various  subjects  which  were  suggested  to  Nicole 
from  time  to  time ;  gathered  together  they  fill  fourteen 
volumes,  of  which  the  first  six  are  on  moral  and 
religious  subjects,  varying  considerably ;  for  instance, 
one  is  on  the  duties  of  a  Mistress  of  Novices,  and 
following  it  is  an  essay  on  the  duties  essential  to  all 
Christians. 

Nicole  is  essentially  a  different  order  of  person  from 
St  Cyran,  with  his  ideas  of  reform,  or  Pascal,  with  his 
passionate  cries.  He  introduced  the  system  of  defence 
of  Port  Royal,  which  consisted  in  trying  to  prove  that 
the  supposed  heresy  was  no  heresy  at  all,  was  purely 
imaginary.  He  invented  the  phrase  so  well  known  in 
those  weary  controversies,  "fait  et  droit."  He  was  by 
no  means  appreciated  by  all  the  Port  Royalists. 
Angelique  de  St  Jean  could  not  endure  him,  but  as 
Sainte  Beuve  says,  "these  family  secrets  were  well 
kept." 

Nicole  was  always  on  the  side  of  peace ;  he  was  a 
"  Moderate,"  and  he  is  not  a  person  who  excites  one's 
love  as  do  the  true  Port  Royalists.  We  feel  inclined 


NICOLE  419 

to  sympathise  with  Ang^lique  de  St  Jean.  But  Nicole 
never  seems  of  the  race  of  Port  Royalists ;  he  is 
only  a  distant  cousin.  And  indeed  one  need  only  read 
his  letter  on  M.  de  Saci's  death,  quoted  by  Sainte  Beuve, 
to  realise  this  inadequacy.  He  actually  writes  that 
M.  de  Saci  was,  in  his  opinion,  a  good  man  on  the 
whole.  To  those  who  love  the  real  race  of  Port  Royal, 
this  from  Nicole  is  unbearable. 

When  the  persecution  burst  out  after  Madame  de 
Long-ueville's  death,  Nicole  journeyed  to  Brussels  to 
find  Antoine  Arnauld.  But  Nicole's  heart  failed  him 
on  being-  asked  to  proceed  to  Holland;  he  was  not 
young,  he  was  not  strong,  and  he  longed  for  some 
retreat  where  he  could  live  in  peace.  And  Nicole 
treating-  with  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  for  leave  to 
retire  to  a  quiet  refuge  is  not  altogether  a  satisfactory 
object  for  contemplation,  and  the  friends  of  Antoine 
Arnauld  were  not  pleased.  Arnauld  was  generous,  as 
indeed  he  always  was  to  his  friends  ;  he  defends  Nicole, 
and  says  many  things  which  are  delightful  reading. 
"Is  it  not  right,"  he  writes  to  one  of  the  "Solitaires," 
"that  M.  Nicole  should  be  "at  leisure  to  work  for  the 
Church,  which  he  is  always  doing  in  one  way  or 
another?  Is  it  not  right  that  everyone  should  act  as 
it  is  given  to  him  to  act  ?  ...  he  is  not  to  be  treated 
as  a  slave."1  Arnauld  was  great  and  brave,  Nicole 
gentle  and  good. 

Nicole  was  compelled  to  wander  a  good  deal,  and 
only  in  1683  did  he  receive  permission  to  live  in  Paris. 

He  died  in  1695,  in  a  quiet,  pious  retreat,  with  books, 
and  distinguished  friends,  and  what  he  longed  for — 
peace.  Everyone  respected  him,  and  he  wrote  various 
books  against  the  Reformed  faith  ;  his  last  work  was 
directed  against  the  Quietists,  who  had  just  arisen. 

But  he  is  sad  ;  he  thinks  things  are  going  from  bad 
to  worse,  that  the  great  people  are  dying  and  no  one  is 
growing  up  to  take  their  place.  He  is  not  the  last  by 
any  means  of  those  sad  Christians  who  are  ever  looking 
back — not  forwards. 

1  Vol.  iv.,  p.  502,  Lcttres  de  M.  Arnauld. 


420  THE  AUTUMN  OF  POET  EOYAL 

He  was  not  really  a  controversialist  by  nature,  and 
was  never  happy  when  he  was  fighting.  He  was  physi- 
cally timid,  and  inclined  to  suspect  danger  where  there 
was  none. 

But  again,  Sainte  Beuve  warns  us  not  to  depreciate 
Nicole,  and  quotes  a  saying :  "  La  vertu  dArnauld, 
les  mceurs  de  Nicole,  et  le  genie  de  Pascal." 

In  fine,  he  is  an  excellent  example  of  a  Moderate 
who  has  been  dragged  into  weary  controversies  and 
forced — it  is  his  own  metaphor — into  many  a  perilous 
voyage.  He  had  resolved,  when  the  peace  of  the  Church 
came,  to  set  out  on  no  more !  And  yet  he  was  forced 
into  more  than  one  controversy,  and  particularly  in 
1690,  when  anxious  to  prove  what  was  supposed  to  be 
a  particularly  objectionable  view  on  the  doctrine  of 
Grace  to  be  a  really  harmless  and  orthodox  opinion. 

Another  friend  of  Port  Royal,  Du  Guet,  refuted  or 
tried  to  refute  him. 

Nicole  wrote  the  Life  of  the  Mere  des  Anges,  and 
revised  some  of  M.  Hamon's  works.  He  also  wrote  a 
Treatise  on  Prayer,  which  contains  edifying  remarks, 
and  is  steeped  from  end  to  end  in  quiet  and  deep 
piety,  but  is  extraordinarily  wearisome  reading ;  and, 
indeed,  Sainte  Beuve's  verdict  is  just  when  he  says : 
"  Nicole  peut  encore  etre  agr£able  a  £tudier,  il  est 
decidement  ennuyeux  a  lire." 

The  book  usually  known  as  La  grand  PerpetuiU  de 
la  Foi  was  largely  if  not  altogether  written  by  Nicole, 
but  he,  with  the  self-effacement  of  the  Port  Royalists, 
preferred  that  Antoine  Arnauld,  who  was  a  priest  and  a 
doctor,  should  alone  place  his  name  on  the  title  page. 
To  the  three  volumes  Arnauld  certainly  contributed 
the  dedicatory  letter  to  Pope  Clement.  The  Port 
Royalists  cared  nothing  for  literary  fame.  All  these 
volumes  grew  out  of  a  controversy  with  a  minister  of 
the  Reformed  faith,  Claude,  who  had  seen  a  MS.  copy 
of  the  Petite  Perpetuity  and  had  attacked  it.  Nicole 
published  a  new  edition  of  the  Petite  Perpetuity  with  a 
reply  to  Claude,  and  began  to  prepare  the  larger  work, 
of  which  the  three  volumes  were  dedicated  to  three 


NICOLE  421 

successive  Popes.  The  work  had  a  great  success,  and, 
it  is  said,  converted  Turenne.  Bossuet  held  it  in  great 
esteem. 

The  pastor  who  was  the  opponent  (M.  Claude) 
united  a  great  deal  of  learning  and  ability  with  a 
" pompous  eloquence,"  to  quote  Du  Fosse.  M.  Claude 
was  minister  of  the  Reformed  faith  at  Charenton  in 
1666.  One  of  his  great  arguments  was  the  astonishing 
one  that  the  Greek  Church  did  not  believe  in  the  Real 
Presence. 

M.  de  Pomponne  was  induced  by  Nicole  and 
Arnauld  to  write  to  the  French  Ambassador  at  Con- 
stantinople, who  collected  a  mass  of  evidence  as  to  the 
belief  of  the  Orthodox  Church  on  this  point.  This  was 
printed  in  vol.  iii.  of  the  Perpetuity  de  la  Foi,  under 
the  title  Preuves  authentiques  de  r  Union  de  r  Eghse 
d' Orient  avec  I'Eglise  sur  r Eucharistie.  Of  course, 
an  epigram  appeared:  " Arnauld  avait  desoriente 
M.  Claude,"  a  wit  remarked. 

"  For,"  writes  the  author  (Nicole  or  Antoine  Arnauld), 
"it  is  certain  that  these  terms  of  which  we  speak,  are 
and  have  been  taken  for  more  than  a  thousand  years 
in  the  sense  of  the  Real  Presence  and  in  the  sense  of 
Transubstantiation.  .  .  .  It  is  impossible  that  Christians 
of  the  first  six  centuries  could  have  understood  these 
words  in  another  sense." 

The  first  two  volumes  are  both  occupied  with 
agreement  between  Greek  and  Roman,  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Churches.  The  third  volume  is  devoted 
to  the  examination  of  the  allegation  that  the  Church 
has  changed  her  teaching  since  870. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  author  convinced  Claude ; 
but  the  great  point  is  that  there  has  never  been  innova- 
tion of  doctrine.  Doctrines  may  have  been  more  fully 
formulated  later,  but  not  originated. 

Nicole  also  wrote  several  books  against  the  Reformed 
faith — Pre'juge's  Ugitimes  contre  les  Calvinistes,  Pre"- 
tendus  Re1  formes  convaincus  de  schisme,  L  Unite1  de 
rEglise. 


422  THE  AUTUMN  OF  POET  ROYAL 

Another  memorable  figure  is  that  of  M.  de 
Pontchdteau.  He  is  of  all  the  Messieurs  and  friends 
and  penitents  (always  excepting  the  Duchesse  de 
Longueville)  the  most  exalted  in  rank,  and  he  is, 
next  to  M.  Le  Maitre,  the  penitent  who  gave  up  most 
from  the  world's  point  of  view.  In  his  later  years  his 
knowledge  of  the  world,  and  his  almost  intuitive  diplo- 
matic skill,  and  that  savoir  faire  which  is  the  especial 
talent  usually  possessed  by  persons  of  high  rank  who 
are  in  constant  intercourse  with  the  great  world,  all 
these  were  devoted  to  the  service  of  Port  Royal. 

Sebastien-Joseph  de  Coislin  du  Cambout,  Abbe  de 
Pontchateau  was  born  in  1634 ;  he  was  the  third  son  of 
the  Marquis  de  Coislin,  Baron  de  Pontchateau,  who 
was  the  head  of  a  distinguished  Breton  family. 

He  was  related  through  his  grandmother  to  the 
Richelieu  family,  and  had  connections  with  many  other 
great  people  of  France. 

For  a  younger  son  of  so  great  a  family,  benefices 
were  plentiful,  and  these  fell  to  M.  de  Pontchateau's 
share.  He  came  to  Paris  to  complete  his  studies,  and 
to  lead  the  gay,  amusing  life  of  a  young  man  of  good 
family,  the  typical  Abbe. 

But  in  1651  Port  Royal  influence  was  much  felt  in 
ecclesiastical  circles.  M.  de  Pontchateau  fell  in  with 
M.  de  Rebours,  and  through  M.  de  Rebours  with 
M.  Singlin.  A  sudden  conversion  was  the  result,  and 
a  great  burst  of  fervour,  and  desires  for  the  Religious 
Life  as  led  by  the  Solitaires  of  Port  Royal.  M.  Singlin, 
the  born  director,  possessed  that  insight  into  character 
which  is  so  necessary  for  a  guide  of  souls.  He  proposed 
something  more  difficult,  the  resignation  of  his  irregularly 
obtained  benefices,  and  a  gradual  withdrawal  from — not 
only  the  worldly  world,  but  the  so-called  religious  world. 

The  newly  awakened  fervour  relaxed,  and  for  some 
time  M.  de  Pontchateau  wavered.  There  was  an 
attempted  journey  to  Rome,  which  was  cut  short,  and 
a  visit  to  Port  Royal,  during  which  he  made  friends 
with  Du  Foss6,  De  Tillemont,  and  others.  He  drew  up 
an  account  of  the  miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn.  Then 


M.  DE  PONTCHATEAU  423 

came  a  return  to  the  world,  and  on  these  years  he 
looked  with  horror  when  his  final  break  with  the  world 
came.  He  made  a  sudden  journey  to  Rome,  and  spent 
some  time  there,  in  the  brilliant,  corrupt  society  which 
is  described  in  John  Inglesant.  He  returned  to  Paris. 
He  made  up  his  mind  to  marry  a  young  lady  who  was 
staying  with  his  sister,  the  Duchesse  d'Epernon.  Her 
death  put  an  end  to  that  project.1  At  last,  on  Good 
Friday  1663,  M.  Singlin  told  him  that  it  was  not  that 
he  could  not,  but  that  he  would  not,  change  his  life. 
Perhaps  M.  de  Pontchateau  was  just  on  the  point  of 
breaking  with  his  rather  aimless  career ;  but,  be  that  as 
it  may,  M.  Singlin's  words  went  home,  and  he  went 
back  to  a  small  house  belonging  to  his  nephew,  the 
Bishop  of  Orleans,  and  spent  the  night  in  meditation 
on  those  words.  He  was  resolved  at  last  no  longer  to 
dally  with  the  danger  of  being  of  those  who  make  "il 
gran  rifiuto."  In  the  early  morning  he  wrote  some 
letters,  resigned  his  benefices,  and  left  the  house. 
Never  did  he  see  any  of  his  relations  again,  excepting 
his  sister,  Madame  d'Epernon,  who  herself  became  a 
nun.  M.  de  Pontchateau  only  kept  a  small  sum  of 
money.  He  sold  all  his  pictures,  and  gave  his  library 
to  Antoine  Arnauld. 

The  Port  Royalists  sought  his  aid  in  various  ways. 
It  was  he  who  arranged  for  the  printing  of  De  Saci's 
New  Testament  at  Amsterdam.  He  also  made  an 
expedition  to  Nordstrandt,  an  island  off  the  Danish 
coast.  Antoine  Arnauld  and  some  others  had  invested 
their  money  in  an  enterprise  for  draining  this  poor  little 
isle,  and  M.  de  Pontchateau  did  his  best  to  get  their 
money  back  when  the  scheme  proved  unsuccessful. 
This  affair  leaked  out,  and  rumours  were  spread  abroad 
that  a  New  Republic  was  about  to  be  set  up  in  this 
rather  bleak  and  uninviting  spot. 

The  peace  of  the  Church  enabled  M.  de  Pontchateau 

1  As  Sainte  Beuve  remarks,  M.  de  Pontchateau  could  be  very  brutal, 
even  in  his  piety.  "  Dieu  a  tue  cette  femme  par-dessus  le  marchd  pour 
me  sauver  encore."  Perhaps  we  may  think  that  she  was  allowed  to  die 
for  her  own  sake  ! 


424  THE  AUTUMN  OF  PORT  EOYAL 

to  make  his  home  at  Port  Royal.  He  took  the  name  of 
M.  Mercier  and  became  the  gardener,  working  very 
diligently,  wearing  the  coarsest  clothes,  and  spending 
many  hours  in  prayer. 

The  Mere  du  Fargis  was  a  great  friend  of  his,  and 
indeed  it  was  to  her  prayers  that  he  himself  attributed 
his  final  conversion.  All  the  hard  and  disagreeable 
work,  even  to  digging  graves,  was  done  by  him,  and 
for  lighter  occupation  he  copied  out  the  writings  of 
M.  Hamon  and  M.  de  St  Cyran. 

There!  is  something  a  little  grim,  a  little  forbidding 
about  M.  de  Pontchateau ;  he  fights  so  terribly  hard 
against  pride  of  birth  ;  he  is  so  conscious  that  that  sin 
must  be  his  temptation.  He  had,  it  is  to  be  supposed, 
to  suffer  for  the  long  years  of  dallying  with  the  world, 
and  to  find  himself  pursued;  by  the  temptations  of  the 
world,  even  at  Port  Royal. 

We  shall  find  him,  when  the  peace  is  finally  broken, 
still  serving  the  cause  of  the  oppressed.  He  retired  to 
a  monastery  in  Luxembourg,  but  made  a  journey  to 
Rome  on  behalf  of  Port  Royal,  and  also  visited  Antoine 
Arnauld  ;  in  fact  he  frequently  travelled  about  "for  the 
cause" ;  he  died  in  1690,  when  on  a  visit  to  Nicole,  who 
tells  us  that  his  death  was  very  peaceful,  and  who  was 
rightly  vexed  by  the  determination  of  the  populace  to 
treat  him  as  a  saint.  He  was  buried  at  Port  Royal,  his 
relations  doing  him  all  the  honour  they  could  in  death  ; 
it  was  not  their  fault  that  they  had  been  so  much 
separated  in  life. 

For  there  must  have  been  much  that  was  lovable  in 
M.  de  Pontchateau ;  his  own  people  were  attached  to 
him,  and  he  had  many  friends.  He  is  not  the  most 
attractive  of  the  Solitaires  ;  in  fact  he  had  a  large  share 
of  the  most  unlovely  qualities  of  a  one-sided  development 
of  religious  life.  But  what  was  wrong  was  not  the  fault 
of  religion,  but  of  his  moral  incapacity  to  rise  to  the 
greatest  heights  of  saintliness. 

The  person  who  has  put  self  first  from  childhood  is 
slow  to  learn  that  the  condition  of  loving  God  is  that  of 
loving  his  brother  also.  M.  de  Pontchateau  did  learn 


RACINE  425 

it,  no  doubt,  but  in  a  one-sided  manner.  The  brutal 
word  quoted  in  a  footnote  gives  us  the  key  to  what  was 
wanting  in  him.  He  never  got  much  beyond  the  desire 
to  "faire  son  salut,"  at  least  so  it  would  seem. 

We  must  also  mention  one  who  has  contributed  to  the 
fame  of  Port  Royal — Racine.  It  was  during  these  peace- 
ful years  that  the  most  distinguished  pupil  of  the  Port 
Royal  Schools — Racine — made  his  peace  with  the 
representatives  of  Port  Royal,  his  aunt,  the  Mere  de 
Sainte  Thecle,  and  Antoine  Arnauld  and  Nicole. 

Jean  Racine  was  born  at  Ferte  Milon  (a  small  place 
in  the  lie  de  France)  in  1639.  His  family  seems  to 
have  belonged  to  the  bourgeoisie.  Left  an  orphan  at  a 
very  early  age,  he  was  brought  up  by  his  grandparents, 
Jean  Racine  and  Marie  des  Moulins.  The  grandfather 
died  when  the  boy  was  only  ten,  and  it  was  on  his 
grandmother  that  he  lavished  all  his  boyish  affection. 
It  was  in  the  house  of  a  relation  of  his,  M.  Vitart,  that 
the  "  Solitaires "  found  their  first  refuge,  as  we  have 
already  seen.  And  Racine's  grandmother  also  retired 
to  Port  Royal,  where  Racine  often  visited ;  for  even  at 
Port  Royal,  as  a  recent  biographer  remarks,  "a  grand- 
mother is  always  a  grandmother ! " 

Racine  himself  was  received  at  Port  Royal  in  one 
of  the  Petites  E  coles  in  1655,  and  probably  the  Port 
Royalists  took  him  as  a  favour,  for  he  was  sixteen,  and 
the  general  rule  was  only  to  take  small  boys. 

M.  Gustave  Larroumet  points  out  in  his  excellent 
little  book  on  Racine,  how  admirably  the  Port  Royal 
system  of  education  suited  Racine's  temperament :  the 
individual  treatment,  the  gentleness  and  humanity  of 
his  masters,  the  excellence  of  their  teaching,  and — what 
was  really  a  priceless  boon — the  introduction  he  received 
to  the,  at  that  time,  almost  unknown  treasures  of  Greek 
literature. 

He  was  familiar  with  the  Bible,  and  his  Port 
Royalist  masters  made  him  a  true  scholar ;  he  was 
steeped  in  classical  literature.  He  used  to  wander  in 
the  woods  around  Port  Royal  repeating  the  works  of 
Sophocles  and  Euripides,  which  he  had  learned  by 


426  THE  AUTUMN  OF  POET  EOYAL 

heart.  He  displeased  our  old  friend  Claude  Lancelot, 
who  found  him  reading  a  Greek  romance  which  the 
Port  Royal  masters  had  not  edited.  Lancelot  threw 
the  book  into  the  fire ;  it  was  Tkeogenes  and  Charidea. 
This  happened  again,  but  Racine  brought  the  third 
copy  of  the  book,  and  told  Lancelot  to  do  as  he  liked 
with  it  for  he  (Racine)  now  knew  it  by  heart.  But  still 
Racine  was  a  pious  boy,  and  he  made  various  trans- 
lations of  the  Office  hymns  in  the  Breviary. 

Oddly  enough,  M.  de  Saci  saw  no  beginnings  of 
poetic  talent  in  the  young  Racine. 

After  three  years  Racine  went  to  Paris  to  study 
philosophy,  and  soon  attracted  royal  notice  by  an 
ode  which  he  composed  on  the  Coronation  of  Louis 
XIV. 

He  not  unnaturally  revolted  against  the  discipline  of 
Port  Royal,  and  probably  he  rebelled  still  more  at  the 
Port  Royal  attitude  to  life,  to  the  world,  to  poetry.  He 
made  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  study  theology  under  the 
direction  of  an  uncle  who  was  settledlin  Uzes,  Languedoc, 
and  returned  to  Paris,  where  he  formed  his  lifelong 
friendship  with  Boileau,  and  began  the  life  of  a  poet,  an 
artist,  a  writer  of  plays.  Of  course,  Port  Royal  in 
general  and  his  aunt  in  particular,  mourned  bitterly, 
and  Racine's  life  for  a  while  was  not  edifying. 

But  his  worst  sin  was  his  ingratitude,  the  unkindness 
of  his  letters  about  his  old  masters  who  had  shown  him 
nothing  but  kindness.  Of  course  they  had  been  pro- 
voking, and  Nicole's  words  about  writers  of  plays  and 
romances  are  exasperating  :  "A  writer  of  romances  and 
of  dramas  is  a  public  poisoner,  not  of  the  bodies  but  of 
the  souls  of  the  faithful."  Alas,  alas,  how  often  are 
these  words  true: — "Thy  sons,  O  Zion,  against  thy 
sons,  O  Greece,"  and  the  sons  of  Zion  are  not  always 
in  the  right. 

Racine's  reply  was  a  chef  d'oeuvre  of  wickedness  and 
wit,  and  of  it  Nicole  says,  "  M.  Larroumet  attacked 
with  a  heavy  axe,  Racine  replied  with  a  dagger." 

And  M.  Larroumet  justly  remarks  that  the  "Soli- 
taires "  must  have  had  faults,  as  they  were  human  beings. 


EACINE  427 

Racine  knew  them  intimately ;  he  knew  their  weak 
points. 

Racine  had  some  excuse ;  he  had  received  great 
provocation  and  he  was  young,  but  his  letter  is  a  blot 
on  his  fame,  and  he  leaves  the  moral  question  out  of 
the  discussion  altogether.  Boileau,  ever  a  good  friend, 
restrained  him  from  publishing  a  second  letter.  "You 
don't  consider,"  he  said,  "that  you  are  attacking  the 
most  upright  people  that  exist." 

Years  afterwards,  when  Racine  had  most  bitterly 
repented,  he  was  twitted  with  his  first  letter.  "It  is 
the  most  shameful  episode  of  my  career,"  he  replied. 
"  I  would  give  my  life  to  efface  it."  The  second  epistle 
was  not  destroyed,  and  was  printed  after  Racine's 
death. 

For  ten  years  the  rupture  with  Port  Royal  was  com- 
plete, and  no  wonder,  considering  the  bitter  words  quite  in 
the  manner  of  the  Provincial  Letters,  with  cruel  anecdotes 
about  Mere  Angelique's  supposed  inhospitality  to 
religious  who  begged  a  shelter,  and  gibes  at  M.  Le 
Maitre,  whose  kindness,  not  to  say  tenderness  to  "le 
petit  Racine,"  as  M.  Le  Maitre  called  him,  had  been  so 
great,  and  who  had  done  him  no  manner  of  wrong ;  the 
Port  Royalists  said  nothing  in  reply,  and  left  Racine 
severely  alone. 

Racine's  career  was  one  unbroken  success  for  some 
years  :  a  discussion  of  his  plays  is  not  part  of  our  plan, 
but  it  is  certainly  remarkable  that  the  perfection  of 
prose  in  Pascal  and  the  perfection  of  poetic  style  in 
Racine  both  emanated  from  Port  Royal. 

But  evil  days  fell  on  Racine :  his  play,  Phedre,  the 
finest  of  his  tragedies,  was  nearly  ruined  by  a  spiteful 
woman,  one  of  the  decadent  members  of  the  once 
admirable  society  of  the  Hotel  Rambouillet.  Racine 
was  drawn  into  miserable  quarrels,  and  began  to  feel 
that  all  was  vanity  and  vexation. 

Probably  what  finally  determined  him  to  cease 
writing,  or  perhaps  took  from  him  the  power  to  write, 
was  a  bitter  grief;  he  was  betrayed  by  a  woman  he 
loved. 


428  THE  AUTUMN  OF  POET  KOYAL 

And  he  turned  back  again  to  the  memories  of  Port 
Royal,  which  return  showed  that  his  resentment  and 
rancour  were  not  very  deep.1 

He  wrote  to  his  aunt,  Mere  de  Saint  Thecle,  and  she 
who  had  never  ceased  to  pray  for  him,  no  doubt  gave 
him  the  help  which  he  needed  ;  he  paid  a  visit  to  Nicole, 
and  as  Louis  Racine,  the  poet's  son,  says,  "  M.  Nicole, 
who  did  not  even  know  what  was  meant  by  war,  re- 
ceived him  with  open  arms." 

Antoine  Arnauld  was  rather  formidable.  He  bitterly 
resented  Racine's  words  about  Mere  Angdique.  But 
the  ever  faithful  friend  Boileau,  who  had  become  a  friend 
of  Arnauld,  took  Phedre  to  the  Doctor,  who  drew  from 
it  an  edifying-  moral  to  the  effect  that,  if  we  are  deprived 
of  God  there  is  no  excess  into  which  we  cannot  fall.  Of 
course  Racine  could  venture  to  call  on  Arnauld  after 
this,  and  the  reconciliation  was  complete. 

Racine's  penitence  was  very  real ;  he  resolved  to 
write  no  more,  and  to  become  a  "  religious,"  but  his 
confessor,  a  wise  and  prudent  person,  advised  him  to 
marry,  which  he  did — one  Catherine  de  Romanet,  a 
daughter  of  an  honourable  house  and  a  well-dowered 
maiden.  She  had  no  literary  tastes  whatsoever,  though 
one  of  her  sons  had,  and  terrified  his  father  thereby. 

Racine  wrote  one  of  his  finest  plays,  Athalie,  and 
also  Esther,  in  his  retirement,  and  a  delightful  short 
history  of  Port  Royal ;  he  and  Boileau  were  appointed 
historiographers  to  the  King,  and  neither  of  the  poets 
was  ever  afraid  when  evil  days  fell  on  Port  Royal  to 
speak  the  truth  to  the  King. 

Racine's  little  history  of  Port  Royal  Boileau  thought 
"the  most  perfect  fragment  of  history  in  our  language," 
and  after  two  centuries  the  judgment  seems  to  us  still 
most  true.  Racine's  attachment  to  Port  Royal  cost 
him  Louis  XIV.'s  favour ;  but  he  was  not,  so  to  speak, 
publicly  disgraced,  and  death  restored  him  in  1699  to 
the  King's  good  graces. 

1  Sainte  Beuve  says  :  "  Toute  sa  deviation,  toutes  ses  erreurs  selon  les 
vues  nouvelles  dont  s'illuminait  son  esprit,  venaient  de  sa  rupture  avec 
ces  Messieurs." 


RACINE  429 

He  died  in  September  1699,  and  was  buried  by  his 
own  desire  in  Port  Royal,  at  M.  Hamon's  feet. 

In  spite  of  many  and  great  faults,  M.  Larroumet 
is  surely  right  when  he  says  : — 

"  Peu  de  caracteres  et  de  g£nies  sont  de  qualite" 
aussi  fine  et  aussi  forte,  aussi  noble  et  aussi  pure. 

"Ce  grand  homme  etait  un  homme,  et  ce  grand 
poete  un  homme  de  lettres. 

"  Mais  il  n'y  a  guere  d'e"crivains  qui,  avec  les  deTauts 
inseparables  de  notre  nature  et  de  sa  profession,  offrent 
autant  a  admirer  et  aussi  peu  a  blamer."1 

And  M,  Lemaitre  in  his  beautiful  "  Discours," 
Racine  et  Port  Royal,  says  : — 

"Cette  vie  si  vraiment  humaine,  si  pleine  de  belles 
larmes  et  de  faiblesses  et  d'hero'isme.  .  .  .  Port  Royal 
1'encadre  et  la  penetre  toute.  .  .  . 

"  Non  seulement  Port  Royal  le  nourrit  et  apres 
vingt  ans  de  separation,  le  recueille,  le  purifie  et  Tapaise ; 
mais  encore  c'est  la  description  de  rhomme  naturel  selon 
Port  Royal  qui  compose  le  fond  solide  et  fait  1'energie 
secrete  de  ses  melodieuses  tragedies.  En  sorte  qu'on 
peut  dire  que  le  theatre  de  Racine  est  la  fleur  profane 
et  imprevue  du  grand  travail  de  meditation  religieuse 
et  de  perfectionnement  interieur  qui  s'est  accompli  il  y 
a  deux  siecles,  dans  ce  jardin,  parmi  les  ruines  ou 
ont  battu  de  si  fermes  cceurs — honneur  austere  de 
notre  race,  comme  Racine  en  est  a  jamais  1'honneur 
charmant.2 

1  M.   Larroumet's  book  is   in   the    series,   "Les  Grands  £crivains 
Fran^ais  "  ( H  ach  ette). 

2  Discours  prononce  a  Port  Royal  le  25  Avril,i899. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE   FINAL  DESTRUCTION   OF   PORT   ROYAL  (1679-1713) 

WE  now  enter  on  the  most  painful  part  of  the  story  of 
Port  Royal.  For  more  than  thirty  years  the  unfor- 
tunate Community,  and  all  persons  connected  with  it, 
underwent  a  persecution  which  hardly  ever  ceased,  and 
which  was  at  once  malignant  and  hypocritical.  It  is  a 
great  temptation  to  end  the  story  of  Port  Royal  at  the 
peace  of  the  Church,  but  that  is  impossible,  for  the  story 
does  not  end  there,  and  we  must  own  that  the  persecu- 
tion set  on  foot  by  Louis  XIV.  was  throughly  successful. 
The  movement  was  stopped.  Port  Royal  ceased  to 
exist.  Although  a  sect  of  Jansenists  lingers  in  Holland, 
Port  Royal — our  Port  Royal — was  blotted  out  of 
existence. 

Perhaps  the  movement  or  impulse  had  seeds  of 
inherent  weakness — perhaps,  as  we  have  said,  there 
was  too  much  individualism,  too  much  of  a  controversial 
spirit,  for  any  lasting  effects.  On  the  whole,  however, 
we  feel  that  it  was  not  so ;  that  had  the  peace  of  the 
Church  not  been  broken,  had  the  King  not  been 
determined  to  crush  all  independent  thought,  the 
French  Church  might  have  been  stronger,  and  better 
able  to  withstand  Voltaire  and  that  which  came  after 
Voltaire — the  Revolution.  Port  Royal  was  an  attempt, 
writes  Renan,  "  faire  de  la  France  une  nation  instruite, 
honnete,  ayant  souci  du  vrai." 

Renan's  praise  may  not  incline  some  of  us  to  think 
more  highly  of  Port  Royal,  but  his  judgment  is  certainly 
true,  that  "Port  Royal  est  un  des  premiers  titres  de 
gloire  de  la  France.  C'est  la  meilleure  preuve  que 


THE  FIRST  THREATENINGS          431 

Ton  puisse  opposer  a  ceux  qui  soutiennent  que  notre 
pays  est  incapable  de  serieux." l 

The  year  of  Madame  de  Longueville's  death  is 
generally  fixed  on  as  the  time  when  the  temporary 
truce  was  broken,  but  there  had  already  been  mutterings 
of  the  storm.  The  Bishop  of  Angers  and  some  of  the 
clergy,  particularly  the  University,  had  never  been  able 
to  agree,  and  there  were  mutual  recriminations.  And, 
most  unhappily,  there  was  an  appeal  to  the  King, 
which  drew  from  that  monarch,  then  in  camp  in 
Flanders,  a  decree  called  TArret  du  Camp  de  Ninove. 
This  was  to  the  effect  that  the  permission  to  sign  the 
formulary  with  explanations  was  only  given  out  of  the 
King's  intense  kindness  for  weak  consciences. 

Of  course  this  altered  the  aspect  of  affairs  ;  and  it 
was,  as  the  saintly  Bishop  of  Grenoble  wrote  to  M.  de 
Pontchateau,  "a  terrible  misfortune  that  M.  d'Angers 
had  not  managed  better."  His  letters  are  full  of 
common  sense ;  he  desires  much  that  Port  Royalists 
should  remain  quiet ;  he  wishes  that  no  disputes  should 
arise,  especially  now  "when  this  question  of  Jansenism 
is  dead." 

Then  Nicole  got  into  trouble,  and  dragged  Antoine 
Arnauld  with  him. 

The  Bishop  of  Arras  and  the  Bishop  of  Saint  Pons 
resolved  to  write  a  letter  to  the  newly  elected  Pope 
(Innocent  XL),  and  bring  to  his  notice  some  proposi- 
tions of  casuistry  which  they  thought  to  be  scandalous. 
They  begged  Nicole  to  translate  their  letter  into  Latin, 
for  he  was  a  most  elegant  Latinist.  The  letter  was 
then  to  be  sent  to  the  French  Bishops  for  their  signa- 
ture, but  while  this  was  being  done  the  Court  was 
informed  ;  the  King  was  angry,  and  decreed  that  the 
letter  should  not  be  sent.  It  was  sent,  however, 
bearing  several  episcopal  signatures,  and  was  carried 
to  Rome  by  M.  de  Pontchateau. 

Then  the  King  turned  on  M.  de  Pomponne  and 
told  him  to  write  to  his  uncle  Antoine  Arnauld,  and 
admonish  him  severely.  Arnauld,  who  had  nothing 

1  Nouvelles  Etudes  Religi&uses. 


432  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  ROYAL 

whatever  to  do  with  the  affair,  justified  himself,  but 
the  Bishop  of  Arras,  with  extraordinary  bad  faith, 
denied  that  he  had  had  any  part  in  the  letter.  Again 
Arnauld  had  to  write  to  M.  de  Pomponne,  and  this 
letter  is  a  most  admirable  and  dignified  account  of  the 
whole  affair  and  how  it  arose. 

No  further  harm  was  done,  but  another  "bruit" 
incensed  Louis,  and  made  him  eager  to  put  an  end 
to  these  annoyances,  and  we  must  notice  that  these 
beginnings  of  persecution  came  entirely  from  the 
King;  for  the  Popes  Innocent  XI.  and  Innocent  XII. 
were  both  favourable  to  the  Port  Royalists,  and  not 
at  all  disposed  to  permit  the  lowered  moral  standard 
which  had  been  set  up  in  various  quarters.  M.  de  Harlai 
de  Champvallon,  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  who  succeeded 
M.  de  Perefixe,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  was  an  able 
person,  with  winning  manners,  and  no  principles 
except  those  of  ambition.  S.  Simon  sketches  him 
admirably.1 

The  Archbishop  had  never  been  able  to  induce 
Madame  de  Longueville  to  be  more  than  barely  civil  to 
him ;  he  had  heard  that  Antoine  Arnauld  had  written 
of  him  as  "un  ministre  de  rAnti-Christ,"  so  that  he 
had  no  prepossessions  in  favour  of  Port  Royal.2 

Madame  de  Longueville  died  in  April  1679.  Louis 
XIV.  had  restrained  his  dislike  to  the  Community  solely 
on  account  of  the  regard  he  really  felt  for  his  cousin. 
Her  brother,  the  great  Cond6,  one  day  said  something 
about  Port  Royal  to  the  King  during  the  later  days  of 
persecution,  and  was  told  that  it  had  only  been  on 
account  of  his  sister  that  the  delay  in  the  proceedings 
against  Port  Royal  had  been  allowed. 

"What  your  Majesty  does,  is  always  well  done," 
answered  the  Prince,  "but  it  is  just  possible  that  in  this 
matter  your  Majesty  has  not  been  told  the  real  truth  of 
things."  The  King  was  silent. 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  VII. 

2  But  in  reality,  according  to  Mere  Ange'lique  de  St  Jean,  Antoine 
Arnauld  had  only  quoted  a  passage  from  St  Jerome  to  the  effect  that 
often  the  Ministers  of  Christ  are  in  the  service  of  Anti-Christ 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  END        433 

Three  weeks  after  Madame  de  Longueville's  death, 
M.  de  Pomponne  was  sent  by  the  King-  to  M.  Arnauld, 
who  was  told  by  his  nephew  that  the  King-  wished  him 
to  know  that  his  Majesty  did  not  approve  of  the 
meetings  which  had  been  held  at  Madame  de  Longue- 
ville's, at  which  M.  Arnauld  had  been  so  often  present ; 
that  Arnauld  was  not  to  set  up  any  gathering's  in  his 
lodging's  ;  in  short,  he  was  to  have  no  particular  friends, 
and  to  avoid  peculiarities. 

It  is  really  difficult  to  believe  Louis  XIV.  could  have 
cared  for  such  extraordinarily  small  details.  The  great 
King,  master  of  Europe  as  he  was,  waging-  war  on  a 
convent  and  a  small  and  harmless  circle  of  elect  souls ! 
Oddly  enough,  the  Monastery  of  St  Cyran  suffered  ;  the 
name  recalled  the  great  Abbe.  M.  de  Barcos  had  died 
in  1678,  and  only  a  few  monks  were  left,  Lancelot 
among  them.  He  was  obliged  to  retire  to  Quimperle  in 
Brittany.  He  lived  until  1695.  "Our  dear  M.  Lancelot 
has  gone  to  God,"  was  written  about  him  at  the  time  of 
his  death.  His  last  words  were  from  Psalm  cxviii. 
(cxix.  in  our  version):  "Vide  humilitatem  meam,  et 
eripe  me :  quia  legem  tuam  non  sum  oblitus,"  which 
indeed  seem  to  sum  up  the  whole  of  his  beautiful  and 
innocent  life.  The  Abbey  of  St  Cyran  was  suppressed. 

The  Archbishop  now  prepared  to  visit  Port  Royal, 
and  sent  one  of  his  officials,  the  Abbe  Fromageau,  to 
collect  some  information. 

Angelique  de  St  Jean,  now  a  woman  of  fifty-five 
years  of  age,  had  been  elected  Abbess  in  the  place  of 
the  Mere  du  Fargis,  who  had  been  elected  three  times 
in  succession.  M.  Fromageau  arrived  on  one  of  the 
Rogation  Days  in  May,  and  had  a  very  long  conversa- 
tion with  the  Abbess,  and  asked  many  questions  as  to 
the  numbers  of  the  nuns,  and  of  the  pupils  (pension- 
naires).  There  were  at  that  time  seventy-three  choir 
Sisters,  twenty  lay  Sisters,  two  novices,  a  few  postulants, 
and  forty-two  pupils.  The  Abbe  spoke  pleasantly  about 
the  education  given  at  Port  Royal. 

But  Angelique  was  not  deceived;  she  must  have 
remembered  the  days  of  1661,  and  she  inquired  what 

2E 


434  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  ROYAL 

lay  concealed  underneath  all  this  civility.  "  Madame," 
said  the  Abbe,  "what  can  you  fear  under  so  mild  a  rule 
as  now  prevails?  The  King  loves  peace,  the  Arch- 
bishop dislikes  any  sort  of  disturbance,  and  always 
manages  things  gently,  and  there  is  nothing  more  that 
I  need  to  ask  you." 

Did  L'Abbe  Fromageau  know  that  what  he  said  was 
entirely  untrue?  we  hope  not.  He  went  on  to  praise 
the  Port  Royalists  generally,  and  spoke  of  the  Princesse 
de  Conti,  and  of  the  sorrow  he  had  felt  when  she  died. 

A  few  days  passed  away,  and  then  the  Archbishop 
arrived  himself,  not  to  give  his  blessing  as  a  Pastor  on 
the  holy  house,  but  to  let  loose  terror  and  desolation 
therein.  He  arrived  at  9  A.M.  on  the  i7th  May.  M.  de 
Saci,  who  was  staying  at  Port  Royal,  was  called  to 
receive  the  illustrious  visitor.  The  Archbishop  was 
almost  overwhelmingly  polite.  He  began  by  telling 
De  Saci  how  entirely  satisfied  both  he  and  the  King 
were  with  his  conduct,  and  after  some  more  civilities 
begged  that  the  Abbess  might  be  asked  to  come  to 
him.  Without  further  preliminaries,  de  Harlai  launched 
this  thunderbolt  at  her.  "It  was  the  King's  will," 
said  he,  that  she  should  send  away  all  the  postu- 
lants and  the  "pensionnaires,"  and  that  as  his  Majesty 
had  decided  that  the  number  of  the  Community  must 
be  reduced  to  fifty  choir  and  twelve  lay  Sisters,  no  more 
postulants  must  be  received  at  present. 

Angelique  had  all  the  dignity  of  the  first  Mere 
Angelique,  and  perhaps  even  more  savoir  faire.  She 
replied  that,  as  the  King's  orders  had  been  sent  to  her 
by  the  Archbishop,  there  was  nothing  to  say.  M.  de 
Paris  again  assured  her  of  his  extreme  sympathy,  and 
his  great  regard  for  the  Community,  and  as  the  present 
postulants  had  been  accepted  for  the  noviciate  by  the 
Community,  they  might  remain  ;  "on  n'avait  qu'a  aller 
son  train,"  he  said  both  to  her  and  to  Mademoiselle  de 
Vertus. 

Again  Angelique  asked  if  there  was  anything  to 
which  people  could  reasonably  object  in  the  education 
which  the  Community  gave.  Quite  the  contrary,  he 


THE  NEW  AECHBISHOP  435 

assured  her,  nowhere  else  was  there  to  be  found  such 
excellent  training".  Not  one  word  was  said  as  to  sending 
away  the  present  confessors,  but  when  Mile,  de  Vertus 
came  in  and  Angelique  went  out,  M.  de  Paris  told  her 
that  he  really  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  say  any- 
thing to  the  Abbess  on  that  subject. 

As  he  was  preparing  to  depart  he  turned  to  M.  de 
Saci  and  said:  "Oh,  by  the  by,  it  is  the  King's 
pleasure  that  neither  you  nor  any  of  the  other  ecclesi- 
astics remainjiere,  you  must  go  away  before  a  fortnight 
is  over." 

One  of  the  Sisters  passed  away  just  at  this  time,  and 
on  her  breast  the  Sisters  laid  this  touching  appeal : — 

"We  appeal  to  Thy  tribunal,  Lord  Jesus.  The 
judges  of  the  earth  refuse  to  listen  to  the  most  righteous 
complaints,  for  they  fain  would  work  iniquity  without 
contradiction  ;  but  Thou  art  Thyself  our  Righteousness, 
and  Thou  wilt  bestow  on  us  mercy  and  justice ;  punish- 
ing us  for  not  having  responded  with  enough  gratitude 
to  the  infinite  grace  Thou  hast  poured  upon  us,  and  yet 
Thou  wilt  acknowledge  us,  because  we  have  suffered  an 
unrighteous  persecution  for  the  sake  of  Thy  truth  and 
Thy  grace ;  for  it  is  because  of  these  that  the  world 
hates  us.  Hearken,  Lord,  to  our  complaints,  look  upon 
the  tears  of  these^  many  children  who  are  torn  from  our 
arms,  keep  them  in  Thine  ;  suffer  not  the  enemy  to  have 
advantage  over  them,  nor  to  triumph  because  they  have 
been  taken  from  us.  Keep  us  in  Thy  truth,  make  us 
immovable  in  the  bond  of  love.  Chang'e  our  sadness 
into  joy  and  grant  Thy  peace,  and  a  happy  rest  to  our 
dear  sister,  whom  we  have  charged  to  lay  our  prayers 
and  our  complaints  at  Thy  Feet. 

"Ah,  favoured  soul,  so  lately  delivered  from  the 
snare  of  the  hunters  by  a  special  providence  of  God, 
bless  His  goodness,  and  bear  witness  to  thy  gratitude 
by  praying  Him  to  extend  His  mercy  over  all  this  family, 
to  whom  He  united  thee ;  that  it  may  please  Him  not  to 
leave  it  undirected ;  that  He  will  guard  for  it  prudent 
and  faithful  Pastors,  so  that  it  may  not  wander  away  in 
this  dark  time ;  and  that  those  who  lay  traps  for  souls 
who  mount  to  God  may  not  have  the  power  to  arrest 
any  one  from  rising  to  God  and  abiding  eternally  united 
to  Him.  Amen." 


436  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  ROYAL 

The  President  de  Guedreville,  whose  daughter  was  a 
pupil  of  Port  Royal,  went  to  see  the  Archbishop,  and 
begged  to  know,  if  the  education  at  Port  Royal  was  good 
and  the  Community  so  irreproachable,  why  the  reception 
of  pupils  was  to  be  forbidden  to  Port  Royal. 

"It  is  exactly  this  that  is  the  mischief,"  said  the 
Archbishop.  "  The  nuns  are  so  good,  they  get  talked 
about,  they  make  friends  through  their  pupils  among 
people  of  quality — and  so  cliques  and  associations  are 
formed,  and  the  King  does  not  like  this  sort  of  thing ; 
and  indeed  these  cliques  are  dangerous  to  the  peace  of 
France." 

The  President  protested  against  the  absurdity  of 
these  ideas  ;  the  "  Messieurs  de  Port  Royal  had  (to  take 
himself  for  an  example)  always  severely  let  him  alone ! " 

"  Oh,"  said  the  Archbishop,  "these  gentlemen  keep 
up  an  intercourse  with  various  foreigners ;  there  are 
about  two  hundred  people  at  Port  Royal ;  and  lastly,  all 
these  people  cannot  live  on  the  revenues  of  Port  Royal, 
so  they  must  have  private  means  and  obtain  help  from 
outside  sources,  and  the  King  does  not  like  it"  Port 
Royal  was  too  careless  of  Court  favour,  too  much 
absorbed  in  high  matters,  to  care  anything  for  Louis 
X I V.  's  smile.  That  was  the  crime.  Louis  XIV.  simply 
could  not  understand  that  a  number  of  men  could  live 
lives  of  prayer  and  work  with  no  thought  of  Court 
favour.  "Ces  messieurs  de  Port  Royal,"  Louis  said, 
"non  pas  qu'on  blame" — (avait  il  soin  de  remarquer) 
"  aucune  de  ces  personnes  prises  isolement ;  au  contraire, 
on  peut  dire,  a  considerer  chacune  en  particulier,  qu'elles 
sont  toutes  bonnes  ;  mais  lorsq'elles  viennent  a  rallier,  il 
s'en  fait  un  corps  sans  chef." 

It  was  really  the  presence  of  the  Solitaires  and  the 
great  Antoine  Arnauld's  connection  with  the  Com- 
munity which  brought  about  the  ruin  of  the  mon- 
astery. 

M.  de  Saci  drew  up  a  protest  for  the  King,  which  was 
very  moderate  in  tone  and  sufficiently  convincing. 

Mere  Angelique  wrote  a  full  account  of  what 
happened  to  her  uncle,  the  now  aged  Bishop  of 


THE  DISPEESAL  OF  THE  CHILDREN   437 

Angers,  and  gave  M.  de  Pontchateau,  the  ever-faithful 
envoy  of  Port  Royal,  a  letter  to  lay  at  the  Pope's  feet ; 
in  it  she  simply  stated  that  since  the  peace  of  the 
Church  there  had  been  no  complaint  against  Port 
Royal,  and  she  pleaded  that  the  Chief  Pastor  would 
take  his  trembling  and  persecuted  sheep  under  his 
protection. 

"  You  would  never  think  that  the  same  people  (the 
Port  Royal  nuns)  would  twice  in  their  lives  see  what 
has  not  been  seen  for  several  centuries. 

"  However,  the  present  way  of  managing  is  more 
extraordinary  than  anything  we  have  already  ex- 
perienced ;  I  have  no  doubt  than  it  is  intended  to  go 
much  further. 

"  However,  they  don't  take  any  trouble  to  find  a 
pretext.  For  when  they  talk  of  a  dangerous  party  in 
the  state,  it  is  just  a  joke ;  no  one  can  possibly  believe 
that  under  the  rule  of  a  Prince  who  has  made  the  whole 
of  Europe  tremble,  there  can  be  much  reason  to  be 
afraid  of  a  troop  of  small  children  and  a  few  priests  who 
direct  a  Community  of  nuns.  .  .  .  What  is  only  to  be 
seen  top  easily,  although  one  does  not  talk  about  it,  is 
that  this  business  is  the  effect  of  the  Devil's  resentment, 
who  cannot  endure  his  banishment  from  a  number  of 
hearts  when  he  rests  peacefully  under  the  shadow  of 
those  wicked  maxims  which  rock  the  conscience  to 
sleep.  ..." 

The  children  who  were  sent  away  were  overwhelmed 
with  grief,  and,  what  seems  rather  unaccountable,  other 
convents  were  forbidden  to  receive  them. 

Besoigne,  in  his  Histoire  de  Port  Royal,  gives  a  list 
of  them,  and  we  see  well-known  names  :  De  Pomponne, 
De  Luines,  Le  Maitre,  De  Grammont,  De  Feuquieres 
(who  were  relations  of  the  Arnaulds).  Of  the  postu- 
lants who  returned  to  the  world,  several  led  so  far  as 
it  was  possible  the  life  of  "religious"  (in  the  technical 
sense)  in  the  world. 

Besoigne  also  gives  a  complete  list  of  the  nuns. 

M.  de  Saci  and  his  cousin,  M.  d'Andilly's  son, 
retired  to  Pomponne,  in  spite  of  the  earnest  solicitations 
of  the  faithful  Fontaine,  who  much  wished  to  have  him 


438  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  PORT  ROYAL 

in  Paris.  The  other  priests,  M.  de  Tillemont,  M. 
Bourgeois,  M.  Borel,  and  M.  Ruth  d'Ans,  all  had  to 
go.  M.  de  Pontchateau  also  went  away.  Some  of  the 
Solitaires  still  remained — M.  Hamon,  and  M.  Charles 
who  had  been  the  Port  Royal  gardener  for  forty  years. 
M.  de  Saci  came  back  for  a  few  days,  and  finally 
retired ;  his  sister-in-law,  Madame  Le  Maitre,1  was 
dying,  and  did  die  in  a  few  days.  M.  de  Sainte  Marthe 
lingered  on ;  for  there  were  no  priests  at  all  at  Port 
Royal,  and  the  Prioress,  the  Mere  du  Fargis,  was  very 
ill.  In  vain  did  her  niece,  the  Duchesse  de  Lesdi- 
guieres,  and  the  Cardinal  de  Retz  try  to  induce  the 
King  to  allow  M.  de  Sainte  Marthe  to  remain. 
Madame  de  Lesdiguieres'  letter  shows  the  considera- 
tion in  which  the  Mere  du  Fargis  was  held. 

Antoine  Arnauld  had  not  waited  for  any  more  royal 
commands ;  he  began  again  the  life  of  exile  which  was 
only  terminated  by  his  death. 

His  own  words  on  his  exile  are  very  fine.  We  may 
quote  a  short  passage  : — 

''Thou  accomplishest  the  words  of  the  Gospel,  and 
Thou  makest  Thine  own  to  find  instead  of  those  whom 
they  have  left,  fathers,  mothers,  brothers,  sisters,  who 
are  inspired  with  such  tender  love  for  those  who  suffer 
for  the  Truth,  .  .  .  that  by  a  strange  kindness  Thou 
changest  the  cross  laid  on  them  into  kindnesses  and 
consolations.  ...  I  am  ready,  O  God,  to  follow  Thee 
whithersoever  it  pleases  Thee  to  lead  me ;  and  when  I 
walk  through  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death  I  will 
fear  nothing,  for  thou  boldest  me  by  Thine  Hand." 

How  deep  is  the  true  underlying  unity  of  Christian 
souls.  How  many  generations  have  stayed  themselves 
on  the  thought  of  the  rod  and  staff  and  the  green 
pastures  and  still  waters  through  which  the  Good 
Shepherd  leads  and  will  lead  His  own  for  ever ! 

Arnauld  might  easily  have  taken  refuge  in  Rome, 
for  the  Pope,  Innocent  XL,  was  favourable  to  him,  and 
it  is  not  impossible  that  a  Cardinal's  hat  might  have 

1  The  wife  of  M.  Le  Maitre  de  Sainte  Elme. 


ANTOINE  AENAULD  IN  EXILE      439 

been  within  his  reach.  With  true  high-mindedness,  he 
reflected  that  as  the  relations  between  France  and  the 
Papal  Court  were  decidedly  strained,  it  was  the  part  of 
an  ever-loyal  subject  not  to  go  to  Rome.1  He  betook 
himself  to  Flanders,  leaving  Paris  on  the  I7th  June 
1679,  and  telling-  no  one  but  his  beloved  niece,  the 
Mere  Angelique  de  St  Jean,  of  his  plans. 

Arnauld  took  up  his  abode  at  Mons,  and  wrote  an 
admirable  letter  to  the  Archbishop  ;  he  says  that  as 
his  enemies  (who  for  the  last  forty  years  have  never 
ceased  to  slander  him)  have  persuaded  the  King  that 
the  visits  of  relations  and  friends  and  of  people  who 
came  to  consult  him  in  religious  difficulties — as  these 
visits  are  so  suspicious,  no  change  of  abode  would  be  of 
much  use.  And  he  goes  on  to  say  that  the  old  and 
absolutely  false  accusations  as  to  his  errors  about 
penitence  and  grace  could  never  have  imposed  on  any 
theologian ;  and  subsequent  events  proved  how  false 
they  were.  The  whole  letter  breathes  a  spirit  of  calm 
dignity,  of  lofty  independence,  of  perfect  respect  for  the 
King  without  undue  subservience,  and  there  is  a  slight 
touch  of  sarcasm  in  the  words  in  which  he  asks,  "Who 
can  imagine  that  the  fear  of  the  supposed  intrigues  of  a 
simple  theologian,  destitute  alike  of  property  and  of 
protection,  and  whose  twenty-four  years  of  retirement 
have  made  him  absolutely  unfit  to  undertake  plots 
against  the  state — who  could  have  thought  these 
things  could  occupy  the  mind  of  so  great  a  King  ? " 

"He  does  hope  that  perhaps  the  King  may  learn  his 
mistake,  and  may  do  justice  to  Port  Royal,  in  which  case 
he  [Arnauld]  will  gladly  sacrifice  the  best  consolation  a 
man  can  hope  for — that  of  living  among  his  friends  and 
dying  in  their  arms." 

Few  men  have  ever  shown  a  more  Christian  temper 
under  persecution  than  the  "great  Arnauld."  Truly  he 
too  might  have  said  with  another  illustrious  exile,  "  I 
have  loved  righteousness  and  hated  iniquity,  therefore 
I  die  in  exile." 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  VIII. 


440  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

Arnauld  also  wrote  a  respectful  but  dignified  letter  to 
Louis  XIV.  himself,  but  M.  de  Pomponne  thought,  and 
probably  quite  rightly,  that  it  would  not  be  presented, 
as  Arnauld,  with  the  generosity  of  his  noble  soul,  spoke 
not  for  himself  only  but  for  his  friends,  "ce  que  nous 
sommes,"  etc.  "That  is  exactly  what  cannot  be  toler- 
ated," wrote  the  doubtless  distracted  De  Pomponne;1 
"it  is  just  what  they  don't  want — these  societies  and 
associations." 

But  to  return  to  Port  Royal :  how  to  replace  the 
confessors  was  no  small  difficulty.  The  Superior  was 
a  certain  M.  Grenet,  the  parish  priest  of  S.  Benoit,  in 
Paris,  or  rather  one  of  the  priests  thereof,  for  the 
church  was  served  by  a  Chapter  of  Canons. 

He  was  a  good  man,  but  not  one  of  "les  notres," 
and  the  Archbishop  felt  that  neither  Grenet  nor  he  were 
highly  thought  of  by  the  Sisters.  [<  We  are  nothing  at 
all;  they  don't  care  for  anyone  but  'ces  messieurs,'" 
and  indeed,  as  M.  Sainte  Beuve  says,  Grenet  lacked  the 
peculiar  "  cachet "  of  that  holy  race  of  Port  Royal. 

Grenet  in  vain  tried  to  intervene,  and  to  find  a 
good  confessor,  and  without  much  success.  The  good 
physician,  Hamon,  was  the  only  comfort  they  had.  As 
time  went  on,  there  was  an  uncomfortable  feeling  that 
the  Archbishop  had  further  designs.  In  1680  he  was 
reported  to  have  said  that  a  few  frogs  still  croaked  in 
the  Port  Royal  marshes,  but  only  a  little  sunlight  was 
needed  to  dry  them  up.  There  was  a  great  idea  that 
the  two  Abbeys  of  Port  Royal  de  Paris  and  Port  Royal 
des  Champs  might  be  united,  and  every  sort  of  effort 
was  made  to  persuade  the  Abbess  of  the  Paris  house  to 
resign ;  Mere  Angelique  had  friends  at  Rome,  and  to 
them  she  wrote — they  in  their  turn  told  the  Pope,  and 
again  Angelique  appealed  to  him,  and  begged  him 
to  watch  over  the  souls  of  those  delivered  over  to 
death. 

The  Pope  did  not  receive  this  letter,  but  the  design 
came  to  nothing. 

1  M.  de  Pomponne  was  abruptly  dismissed  from  the  King's  service  in 
November  1679,  but  was  recalled  in  1691. 


THE  NEW  CONFESSORS  441 

Still  the  vexations  and  "  tracasseries  "  at  Port  Royal 
des  Champs  were  unceasing-. 

M.  Poligne,  the  new  confessor,  preached  the  doctrine 
of  blind  obedience,  and  treated  the  Abbess  in  a  most 
insolent  and  unbecoming  manner.  And  on  Good 
Friday,  1680,  he  preached  an  extraordinary  sermon,  in 
which  he  furiously  denounced  the  poor  Sisters  and 
compared  them  to  the  heretics  of  all  and  every  past 
age — Arians,  Donatists,  Pelagians,  Calvinists.  Mere 
Angelique  was  not  a  person  who  could  be  treated  in 
this  way ;  and  a  remonstrance  from  her  to  M.  de  Harlai 
effected  the  removal  of  M.  Poligne.  With  him  was 
associated  a  certain  M.  1'Hermite,  who  was  an  un- 
objectionable person,  with  no  particular  gifts  and 
perhaps  no  great  depth  of  spirituality,  but  who  at  any 
rate  was  good  and  pious. 

After  most  wearisome  delays,  two  novices  had  been 
professed  by  M.  Grenet,  the  Superior  acting-  for  the 
Archbishop,  on  the  fifth  Sunday  after  Easter,  26th 
May  1680.  These  were  the  very  last  Sisters  who 
were  ever  professed  in  that  holy  and  pious  Community. 

Their  names  were  Franchise  de  St  Agathe  le  Juge 
and  Marie  Catherine  de  Sainte  Celinie  Benoise.  They 
deserve  a  word  of  remembrance ;  what  courage,  what 
resolution  must  it  not  have  needed  to  join  once  and  for 
all  their  fortunes  to  Port  Royal!  With  what  sinking 
hearts  must  not  the  two  Mothers,  Angelique  de  St  Jean 
and  Mere  du  Fargis,  have  bestowed  the  kiss  of  peace  and 
welcomed  the  new  Sisters!  Indeed  the  pious  historian 
Besoigne  seems  himself  inclined  to  doubt  the  wisdom 
of  the  proceeding,  but  he  was  writing  long  after  the 
final  agony,  and,  after  all,  how  could  these  novices  have 
been  refused?  and  are  there  not  some  causes  with 
which  it  is  better  to  fail,  so  far  as  the  world  is  concerned, 
than  to  forsake  them  ? 

"  Monseigneur,"  writes  the  Mere  Angelique,  who 
really  seems  to  us  to  rise  to  as  great  heights  of  moral 
dignity  as  did  ever  her  illustrious  aunt — "  I  would  not 
allow  myself  to  interrupt  you  in  the  important  occupa- 
tions of  your  office,  did  I  not  know  that  M.  Grenet,  who 


442  FINAL  DESTEUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

is  kind  enough  to  take  charge  of  this  letter,  must  speak 
to  you  of  us,  and  also  that  as  we  are  a  small  portion  of 
your  flock,  you  will  sacrifice  a  few  moments  in  order 
to  inform  yourself  of  the  condition  of  this  Community. 
The  time  he  has  spent  here  [M.  Grenet  had  been  able 
to  stay  two  months  at  Port  Royal]  has  made  him 
perfectly  acquainted  with  us,  and  I  have  no  doubt, 
Monseigneur,  that  he  will  fully  make  known  to  you  our 
deep  gratitude  for  the  proofs  you  have  given  us  of  your 
fairness  in  two  important  matters  "  [the  dismissal  of  M. 
Poligne,  and  the  Profession]. 

She  goes  on  to  say  that,  as  the  Archbishop  had  told 
them  to  wait,  they  had  done  so,  "but,"  she  continues, 
"  Monseigneur,  may  we  venture  to  ask  'till  when?' 
We  are  so  insignificant  (si  peu  de  chose)  that  it  is 
very  easy  to  forget  us  altogether,  unless  we  speak. 
May  we  not  show  you  that  we  have  suffered  for  a  long 
time?  God  gives  us  freedom  to  complain  to  Him,  and 
we  do  it  very  often,  for  He  is  not  wearied  by  our  tears. 
For,  indeed,  our  tears  are  not  on  account  of  temporal 
possessions,  which  should  be  neither  loved  nor  regretted, 
but  for  the  souls  Jesus  Christ  has  loved  so  much." 

In  another  letter  she  says  : — 

"  We  have  need  of  each  other.  Forgive  this  word 
of  freedom :  I  mean  it  in  this  sense  .  .  .  that  as  we 
cannot  belong  to  the  flock  of  Jesus  Christ  unless  we 
yield  you  respect  and  obedience,  ...  no  more  can  you 
exercise  the  ministry  which  He  has  entrusted  to  you 
save  by  feeding  His  Sheep  and^  His  Lambs,  which  are 
the  true  riches  of  true  Pastors/' 

It  is  possible  that  the  biographers  of  the  great  Port 
Royalists,  always  excepting  Sainte  Beuve,  have  not  done 
justice  to  the  second  Angelique.  She  has  certainly  even 
greater  intellectual  gifts  than  the  first,  and  it  seems, 
as  one  reads  the  record  of  this  second  persecution, 
that  the  once  somewhat  dogmatic  and  somewhat 
argumentative  Angelique  of  1661-1664  has  become 
a  saint,  clear-headed  and  intellectual  as  of  old,  but 
with  more  spirituality  and  tenderness.  She  had  grown 
and  ripened. 


M.  LE  MOINE  AND  M.  LE  TOUENEUX  443 

The  following-  October,  the  Archbishop  sent  M.  Le 
Moine,  who  was  highly  recommended  by  priests  of 
Saint  Louis  en  1'Ile.  M.  de  Paris  spoke  with  great 
openness  to  M.  Le  Moine,  and  told  him  to  try  his 
best  to  subjugate  Port  Royal.  For  some  three  months 
all  went  on  well ;  M.  Le  Moine  was  a  holy  priest,  and 
he  was  happy  at  Port  Royal.  But  one  morning  in 
February  1681,  just  as  he  had  said  his  Mass,  a 
messenger  arrived  with  orders  that  M.  Le  Moine 
was  to  gx>  straight  to  St  Germain.  And  when  he 
arrived  there  he  was  closely  questioned  by  M.  de 
Chateauneuf,  M.  de  Pomponne's  successor  as  Secretary 
of  State.  It  appeared  that  M.  Le  Moine  had  been 
the  medium  through  which  a  large  sum  of  money  had 
been  conveyed  to  the  Bishop  of  Pamiers,  when  he 
was  in  disgrace  and  poverty.  Probably  the  friend  who 
effected  this  was  M.  des  Touches,  who  had  been  one  of 
the  "Solitaires"  at  St  Cyran.  And  M.  Le  Moine,  in 
addition  to  the  crime  of  aiding-  a  g-ood  work,  had  also 
been  director  of  the  Seminary  at  Alet.  M.  Le  Moine 
was  sent  off  to  his  own  diocese,  and  was  not  allowed 
even  to  say  a  hasty  farewell  to  his  beloved  Port  Royal ; 
in  leaving  it,  he  wrote,  he  felt  he  was  leaving-  an 
earthly  Paradise. 

One  fact  is  to  the  credit  of  Louis  XIV.  There  was 
actually  a  question  of  a  lettre  de  cachet  for  M.  Le 
Moine  (he  had  been  threatened  with  the  Bastille  for 
refusing  to  say  who  had  sent  him  the  money).  The 
King  said :  "  It  shall  never  be  said  that  anyone  was 
sent  to  the  Bastille  for  bestowing  alms." 

But  the  Archbishop  was  destined  to  make  a  worse 
mistake,  and  that  was  the  appointment  of  M.  Le 
Tourneux,  the  friend  of  M.  du  Fosse",  one  of  the  real, 
true  confessors  of  Port  Royal. 

Before  this,  however,  there  had  been  deep  anxiety 
at  Port  Royal  as  to  the  election  of  their  Abbess. 
Long  ago,  we  remember  Mere  Angelique  had  made 
these  elections  triennial.  Angelique  de  St  Jean  had 
just  completed  her  three  years,  and  it  was  needful  either 
to  re-elect  her  or  to  choose  another  Abbess.  Mere 


444  FINAL  DESTEUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

Angelique  wrote  to  the  Archbishop's  Secretary,  asking 
him  to  fix  a  day  at  his  convenience  for  the  election, 
so  that  he  could  be  present.  In  reply,  she  was  told 
that  the  Archbishop  needed  some  days  for  delibera- 
tion. 

The  unfortunate  Community  were  in  an  agony  of 
supense,  and  poured  out  their  hearts  in  never-ceasing 
intercessions.  The  Due  de  Roannez  did  his  best ; 
he  went  to  see  the  Archbishop,  who  assured  him  that 
it  really  was  not  his  intention  to  alarm  the  nuns,  and 
that  the  election  might  go  on ;  it  had  really  been  want 
of  leisure  which  had  prevented  his  attending  to  the 
affair.  Whether  this  was  true  it  is  impossible  to  say — 
probably  not. 

Port  Royal  had  still  plenty  of  friends  in  high  places, 
and  a  letter  was  sent  to  this  effect :  "  Joy,  joy,  your  elec- 
tion can  be  made  to-morrow. "  The  election  did  take  place, 
and  Mere  Angelique  was  re-elected.  She  wrote  a  grave 
letter  of  thanks  to  M.  de  Paris,  begging  him  to  remember 
that  the  Community  had  still  no  adequate  director. 

The  Due  de  Roannez  and  Mademoiselle  de  Vertus 
used  all  the  interest  they  possessed  to  induce  the  Arch- 
bishop to  appoint  fresh  confessors,  and  after  wearisome 
correspondence,  M.  Le  Tourneux  was  asked  by  the 
Archbishop  himself  to  go  to  Port  Royal  for  a  time. 

And  M.  Le  Tourneux  was  not  only  a  spiritual  guide 
of  the  school  of  M.  de  St  Cyran  and  the  rest ;  he  was 
also  a  considerable  preacher. 

Nicholas  Le  Tourneux  was  born  at  Rouen,  of  poor 
parents,  in  1640.  Like  many  another  boy  who  in  later 
years  has  become  a  preacher,  he  loved  to  "play  at 
preaching,"  and  his  juvenile  performances  attracted 
great  attention.  That  excellent  M.  Gentien  Thomas  du 
Fosse"  had  had  entrusted  to  him  a  sum  of  money  which 
was  to  be  employed  in  educating  poor  children  who 
showed  signs  of  vocation  for  Holy  Orders.  Nicholas 
attracted  his  attention,  and  was  sent  to  Paris  to  the 
Jesuits'  College ;  he  was  a  great  success.  Here  he 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Chancellor  Tellier's  two 
boys,  one  destined  to  be  in  after  years  Louis  XIV.'s 


M.  LE  TOURNEUX  445 

War  Minister,  and  the  other  to  be  Archbishop  of 
Rheims.  The  Chancellor  did  not  forget  Le  Tourneux. 
The  boy,  after  finishing  his  philosophical  studies,  stayed 
for  some  time  in  Touraine  with  a  good  priest,  and  then 
returned  to  Rouen  and  took  Holy  Orders  at  the  early 
age  of  twenty-two,  for  which  he  had  to  obtain  a  dis- 
pensation. 

Du  Fosse,  in  those  delightful  Memoirs  of  his,  tells 
us  how  the  young  ecclesiastic,  who  had  nothing  in 
his  appearance  to  recommend  him,  became  a  noted 
preacher  in  a  very  short  time.  He  was  one  of  those 
preachers  who  go  straight  to  men's  consciences.  Du 
Fosse  says  that  he  heard  a  sermon  soon  after  his  return 
from  the  Bastille,  which  was  fresh  in  his  mind  as  he 
wrote  his  Memoirs  thirty  years  afterwards. 

Le  Tourneux  took  up  his  abode  in  Paris  with  Pierre 
du  Fosse  (the  author  of  the  Memoirs)  and  M.  de 
Tillemont,  for  he  too  was  possessed  with  the  desire  to 
renew  his  conversion,  to  "faire  penitence." 

He  thus  became  acquainted  with  De  Saci  and  the 
great  Arnauld  ;  and  Du  Fosse  says  he  wonders  that  they 
did  not  send  Le  Tourneux  back  to  Rouen  to  work  for 
God  in  the  Vineyard  of  the  Lord.  But  these  great 
spiritual  guides  knew  their  "  mttier" ;  they  knew  how 
much  a  period  of  retirement  can  do  for  the  individual 
soul,  and  thus  for  the  whole  Church.  Le  Tourneux 
had  a  great  affection  for  Du  Fosse,  and  used  to  entreat 
him  to  correct  what  he  (Le  Tourneux)  wrote.  Du 
Fosse,  who  undoubtedly  had  the  gift  of  literary  expres- 
sion, and  was  held  in  great  esteem  by  all  "  les  notres" 
modestly  says  that  there  was  not  much  to  correct. 

Le  Tourneux  began  to  preach  again  in  1671  ;  M.  de 
Saci,  who  was  his  director,  had  not  kept  him  long  in 
retirement.  M.  du  Fosse's  mother  about  this  time 
came  to  live  with  him  in  Paris,  and  a  certain  "  Mattre 
des  Requetes"  M.  Vazet,  persuaded  Le  Tourneux  to 
live  in  his  house,  and  here  Le  Tourneux  began  the  series 
of  devotional  books  which  can  still  be  read  with  intense 
edification.  Madame  du  Fosse  placed  herself  under  his 
direction,  as  did  many  another. 


446  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

He  became  known  as  a  preacher,  and  Louis  XIV. 
one  day  asked  Boileau  who  was  this  preacher  after 
whom  everyone  was  running.  "  Sire,"  replied  the  poet, 
"your  Majesty  knows  people  always  run  after  anything 
new ;  he's  a  preacher  who  preaches  the  Gospel " ;  and 
then  he  added  that  "  Le  Tourneux  frightened  people  so 
much  when  he  got  into  the  pulpit,  they  wished  he  would 
go  down  again,  but  when  he  began  they  were  frightened 
lest  he  should  go  down." 

He  does  not  seem  to  have  been  so  very  ugly  :  prob- 
ably he  was  only  insignificant. 

Du  Fosse  gives  us  a  few  extracts  from  his  sermons 
preached  in  a  celebrated  Lent  course  of  1682,  which 
really  show  an  extraordinary  depth  of  spirituality,  and 
of  effort  to  draw  people  to  the  knowledge  of  "  Christ  in 
them,  and  they  in  Christ,"  which  is  the  secret  of  a  true 
conversion. 

Le  Tourneux's  books  are,  as  we  have  said,  excellent. 
The  one  on  the  Sacraments  is  a  complete  manual 
of  what  a  Christian  should  know  and  believe  about 
them. 

We  will  quote  a  few  passages  : — 

On  Confirmation. —  "The  fullness  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  thus  the  peculiar  effect  of  Confirmation,  and  the  result 
of  this  fullness  is  an  inward  strength  which  makes  a 
Christian  not  ashamed  to  confess  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  by  his  actions." 

The  Eucharist. —  "  We  must  not  imagine  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  in  the  Eucharist  in  the  way  in  which  our  bodies 
are  in  a  certain  place.  He  is  there,  in  a  way  that  we 
cannot  understand,  and  that  it  is  not  necessary  that  we 
should  understand.  The  Church  says  He  is  there  in  a 
Sacramental  way,  so  that  He  can  be  present  in  many 
places  at  once." 

Le  Tourneux  says  that  the  proper  time  for  making 
one's  Communion  is  after  the  Priest's  Communion. 
And  no  one  should  communicate  without  hearing  Mass 
first.  (Of  course  he  is  speaking  of  people  who  come  to 
Church,  not  the  sick.) 


LE  TOURNEUX ;  L'ANNEE  CHRETIENNE  447 

UAnnde  Chre'tienne  is  a  wonderful  treasury  of  solid 
piety. 

He  says  (we  can  only  give  a  few  quotations)  that  to 
enter  the  Church  is  to  enter  God's  family,  and  to  be  of 
His  servants  is  to  be  not  slaves,  but  children. 

The  meditations  for  the  Epistle  and  Gospel  for 
Christmas  Day  are  particularly  excellent.  The  one 
on  the  Gospel  is  most  beautiful  in  its  fervour.  As  he 
meditates  on  the  concluding-  words,  he  says  :  "  He  is  full 
of  truth,  for  it  is  through  Him  we  are  freed  from  error. 
He  is  full  of  truth,  because  He  has  fulfilled  by  his  Incar- 
nation all  the  promises  of  God,  the  words  of  prophets,  the 
types  of  the  law.  He  is  full  of  truth  to  teach  us,  full  of 
grace  to  enable  us  to  do  what  He  teaches.  By  His 
truth,  which  dispels  the  darkness  of  our  ignorance,  He 
is  our  light.  By  His  grace,  which  heals  the  corruption 
of  our  hearts,  He  is  our  life."  And  there  follows  a 
fervent  prayer. 

In  his  book,  De  la  Meilleure  Maniere  d?  entendre  la 
Sainte  Messe,  he  sets  forth  how  desirable  it  is  that  the 
faithful  should  understand  the  Mass,  and  the  meaning1 
of  all  that  is  done  in  Church,  for  Christians  are  treated 
as  the  friends  and  children  of  God ;  what  he  wishes 
to  impress  on  Christians  is  that  they  are  to  offer  a 
"reasonable  service." 

And  for  a  very  brief  period  this  saint  of  God  was 
allowed  the  privilege  of  directing-,  instructing-,  encourag- 
ing- the  Port  Royal  Community. 

This  was  a  respite :  M.  Le  Tourneux  was  greatly 
esteemed  in  Paris  by  all  the  really  good  people,  and  he 
seemed  to  be  not  disliked  by  the  principalities  and 
powers  of  the  world.  Alas,  only  for  a  short  time ;  yet 
who  could  wish  Le  Tourneux's  fate  to  have  been 
otherwise?  During  that  Lent  of  1682,  M.  de  Saci 
was  actually  allowed  by  the  King  himself  (it  seems 
hardly  credible  that  even  Louis  XIV.  could  have  cared 
so  much  for  details)  to  visit  Port  Royal,  and  help 
Mademoiselle  de  Vertus,  who  was  ill.  A  poor  dying 
nun  had  the  unspeakable  comfort  of  receiving  the  last 
Sacraments  from  his  hands.  She  had  dreamt  one  night 


448  FINAL  DESTEUCTION  OF  PORT  EOYAL 

that  she  found  M.  de  Saci  administering  the  Sacraments 
to  her,  and  she  was  sure  that  this  would  come  to  pass, 
as  it  did.1 

M.  Le  Tourneux  was  not  left  in  peace  very  long; 
there  were  influences  at  work  against  him,  and  Arnauld, 
in  one  of  his  letters,  speaks  of  a  seizure  of  his  own  books, 
and  that  he  fears  M.  Le  Tourneux  may  be  implicated.2 
M.  Le  Tourneux  retired  to  a  priory  in  Picardy,  which 
the  Archbishop  of  Rouen  had  bestowed  on  him,  and 
gave  himself  up  entirely  to  prayer  and  study.  He 
published  the  first  two  volumes  of  L '  Annde  Chrttienne. 
It  was  much  attacked  on  trivial  grounds  by  those  who 
hated  anything  or  anyone  remotely  connected  with  Port 
Royal,  and  most  vexatious  and  petty  complaints  were 
made  by  the  Archbishop.  M.  Le  Tourneux  wrote 
calmly  and  respectfully,  but  as  U  Annde  Chrttienne 
was  attacked,  he  came  to  Paris  in  1686.  Here  he  was 
struck  by  apoplexy.  He  was  only  forty-six  when  he 
passed  away.  His  heart  was  carried  to  Port  Royal. 

He  is,  although  he  was  so  short  a  time  in  any  real 
connection  with  Port  Royal,  one  of  the  true  race  thereof, 
and  in  happier  days  he  would  have  been  an  adequate 
successor  to  M.  de  Saci.  He  had  a  great  gift.  He 
could  really  explain  and  comment  on  Holy  Scripture, 
and  he  probably  did  for  the  Christian  world  of  France 
a  work  similar  to  that  which  Bishop  Gore  did  for  us  in 
England  some  years  ago. 

Le  Tourneux  and  M.  de  Saci,  and  some  of  the  others 
of  Port  Royal,  wished  to  create  an  intelligent  Christian 
laity,  to  make  them  understand  the  Mass,  the  Offices, 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  Alas,  alas,  that  such  aims  should 
have  been  frustrated ! 

To  return  to  our  sad  history.  From  this  time  it  is 
only  a  necrology  which  we  have  to  relate.  As  no  more 
professions  were  allowed,  the  numbers  gradually  dimin- 
ished. 

On  the  departure  of  M.   Le  Tourneux,  the  Arch- 

1  See  Vies  Interessantes. 

2  Arnauld  speaks  of  this  at  some  length  in  two  of  his  letters  of  October 
1682. 


DEATH  OF  M.  DE  SACI  449 

bishop  consented  to  appoint  M.  Eustace,  Cure  of 
Fresnes,  in  the  Diocese  of  Rouen  ;  he  was  a  good 
priest,  not  one  of  the  true  race,  but  pious,  and  he 
remained  for  twenty-two  years  at  Port  Royal. 

One  after  another  of  the  great  people  pass  away, 
and  we  feel  that  they  are  taken  from  the  evil  to  come. 
In  1684  M.  de  Saci  died,  and  Du  Fosse,  who  loved  him 
very  much,  gives  us  a  touching  account  of  his  death,  as 
does  the  ever-faithful  Fontaine. 

Since  1679  he  had  lived  at  Pomponne  in  a  holy 
retirement,  directing  a  few  souls,  and  working  at  his 
Commentary  on  Holy  Scripture. 

A  few  days  before  M.  de  Saci's  death,  he  had  a  long 
talk  with  his  beloved  Fontaine;  he  had  been  ill,  and 
Fontaine  had  not  been  allowed  to  see  him. 

"  As  soon,"  writes  Fontaine,  "as  he  saw  me  coming 
into  his  room,  he  ran  to  me  and  took  me  in  his  arms.  .  .  . 
and  we  both  shed  tears.  .  .  .  What,  have  they  treated 
you  like  the  rest  ? "  he  said,  trying  to  make  up  to 
Fontaine  for  not  having  been  admitted  to  M.  de  Saci's 
sick-room. 

Then  M.  de  Saci  gave  Fontaine  a  commission  to  do 
some  translation  ;  and  they  discussed  the  translation 
which  De  Saci  was  making  of  the  Bible.  De  Saci 
spoke  much  of  the  difficulties  of  his  task,  and  seemed 
almost  to  reproach  himself  for  having  tried  to  make  his 
translation  too  elegant.  Fontaine  never  saw  his  beloved 
friend  again.  On  the  4th  January,  M.  de  Saci  said 
Mass  with  more  than  usual  fervour.  Indeed,  says  one 
historian,  as  he  uttered  the  "Agnus  Dei"  and  the 
"  Domine,  non  sum  dignus,"  he  seemed  to  see  Him  to 
Whom  he  spoke,  unveiled. 

After  dinner  he  had  the  life  of  the  Saint  of  the  day 
(St  Genevieve)  read  aloud,  and  spoke  with  such  fervour 
that  some  of  those  present  exclaimed,  "this  man  is  not 
long  for  this  world."  And  indeed  in  a  very  few  hours 
M.  de  Saci  was  taken  ill,  and  sent  for  his  parish  priest, 
who  administered  the  last  Sacraments  to  him.  Then  all 
the  people  at  Pomponne,  M.  de  Luzanci,  and  a  holy 
widow,  who  having  lived  for  many  years  at  Port  Royal 

2F 


450  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  ROYAL 

had  been  given  an  asylum  at  Pomponne,  and  others, 
knelt  round  and  received  his  blessing.  Du  Fosse  writes  : 
"  I  could  not  but  think  of  the  Patriarch  Jacob  blessing 
his  children.  He  passed  away  in  perfect  peace." 

Du  Fosse  was  not  there,  but  hurried  at  once  to 
Pomponne.  In  a  bitter  winter's  night  the  funeral 
started  from  a  church  in  Paris,  to  which  the  body  had 
been  carried,  under  the  escort  of  two  hundred  men, 
whom  the  Duchesse  de  Lesdiguieres  had  sent.  She 
loved  M.  de  Saci ;  he  had  been  her  spiritual  guide.  In 
the  middle  of  a  dark  winter  night  the  funeral  party  set 
out  for  Port  Royal.  All  went  well,  and  M.  de  Saci  was 
laid  to  rest  in  the  Chapel  of  our  Lady.  Hamon  wrote 
his  epitaph. 

The  great  work  of  M.  de  Saci  was  the  translation  of 
the  Bible.  And  besides  this,  he  also  translated  the 
Imitation,  and  the  Homilies  of  St  Chrysostom  on  the 
Gospel  according  to  St  Matthew.  He  edited  Martial 
and  Terence  for  Les  petites  Scales. 

He  was  intensely  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him.  Du 
Fosse,  who  was  under  his  direction,  says  :  "  His  work 
was  to  teach  souls  to  separate  themselves  from  the  love 
of  the  world  and  of  self,  and  to  fix  themselves  on  God." 
Yet  he  never,  Du  Fosse  says,  laid  burdens  on  those 
whom  he  guided. 

De  Saci's  letters  are  full  of  common  sense,  of  spiritu- 
ality ;  of  that  deep  spirituality  so  characteristic  of  Port 
Royal.  Union  with  God,  offering  ourselves  to  Him,  are 
his  favourite  themes.  Here  is  a  quotation  : — 

"  It  is  very  blessed  for  us  when  we  can  feel  that  the 
interests  of  God  and  our  own  interests  are  the  same. 
For,  then,  really  nothing  happens  to  us  except  what  we 
wish.  For  nothing  happens  save  what  He  wills  ;  and  we 
only  will  what  He  wills."  "  In  la  Sua  Voluntade  e 
nostra  Pace,"  is  indeed  De  Saci's  thought. 

He  speaks  of  the  great  Christian  paradox,  that 
chiefly  in  sorrow  do  we  really  know  the  peace  of  God. 

He  speaks  of  faults  becoming  a  means  of  grace,  if  we 
will  allow  them  to  become  occasions  of  humility. 

"All,"  he  says,  "is  extraordinarily  simple — the  joy 


M.  DE  SACI'S  SPIRITUAL  LETTERS  451 

of  All  Saints'  Day,  the  thought  that  Christ  bears  in  us 
the  burden  He  lays  on  us,  the  duty  of  almsgiving-;  that 
it  is  of  God,  who  does  all  for  the  guidance  of  souls." 

In  a  letter  written  to  a  Sister,  in  which  he  begs  her  to 
trust  absolutely  in  God  and  not  to  dwell  on  her  diffi- 
culties, he  adds  :  "  I  think  I  have  a  right  to  ask  you  this, 
for  you  are  of  those  I  desire  never  to  forget  in  my 
prayers." 

He  has  some  beautiful  words  to  a  Sister  who  is 
distracted  by  her  work  :  "  I  have  often  thought  that  we 
pay  too  little  attention  to  those  years  of  the  Life  of 
Christ  [from  His  twelfth  to  His  thirtieth  year].  It  seems 
to  me  that  those  who  like  you  are  busied  in  holy  and 
exterior  work,  should  have  a  very  special  devotion  to 
this  large  portion  of  His  Life  which  He  spent  doing  very 
ordinary  things  and  in  labour.  .  .  .  That  is  why  His 
enemies  called  Him  the  carpenter's  son.  In  order  to 
profit  by  so  holy  an  example,  ponder  over  what  St 
Augustine  says,  that  all  the  Life  of  the  Incarnate  God 
on  earth  is  to  be  the  rule  of  our  life,  the  pattern  we  are 
to  imitate,  and  ...  so  you  may  feel  you  are  blessed  if 
you  are  called  to  imitate  Him  in  this  [work],  which  may 
be  more  holy  because  it  seems  humble  and  obedient. 
But,  then,  Jesus  Christ  did  not  come  only  to  teach  men 
but  also  to  help  them  to  carry  out  His  teaching.  So, 
then,  you  must  often  ask  Him  to  work  in  you ;  as  He 
gives  us  Himself  in  the  Holy  Eucharist  to  live  in  us,  to 
retrace  in  each  of  His  members  the  life  He  once  led  on 
earth." 

He  then  speaks  of  the  obedience  and  quietness  and 
gradual  growth  of  this  hidden  life  of  our  Lord  ;  that  all 
this  can  be  true  of  us,  "since  it  is  Jesus  Christ  Himself 
Who,  because  He  lives  in  us,  calms  our  temper,  delivers 
us  from  moods,  and  makes  our  life  become  in  a  certain 
degree  an  imitation  of  His  own." 

He  tells  her  to  remember  St  Paul's  words  about  the 
meekness  and  gentleness  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  these 
graces  must  have  shone  forth  in  His  hidden  life,  and  she 
must  ask  in  every  Communion  that  Christ  would  form 
this  grace  in  her.  And  she  must  ask  this  for  him  also. 


452  FINAL  DESTEUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

All  so  simple — such  advice  as  is  given  in  Retreats 
now  by  those  who  are  not  seldom  accused  of  leading- 
souls  astray,  of  false  doctrine,  just  as  were  the  Port 
Royalists. 

He  writes  on  marriage,  how  great  a  vocation  is  that 
of  parents.  The  smallest  words  of  a  mother  may 
produce  the  greatest  possible  effect  on  her  children's 
minds,  because  God  gives  to  them  a  very  special 
blessing. 

He  also  speaks  of  the  duty  of  caring  for  servants. 

He  often  refers  to  M.  Le  Tourneux. 

And  Angelique  was  soon  to  join  him  whom  she 
mourned.  On  the  24th  January,  after  praying  at  M.  de 
Saci's  grave  for  a  long  time,  she  rose  from  her  knees  in 
great  pain,  but  managed  to  say  the  next  Office  and  then 
retreated  to  bed,  saying  to  one  of  the  Sisters  who  wished 
to  remove  her  veil,  "  Do  not  trouble  ;  I  want  to  give  it  up 
myself  to  H  im  from  Whom  I  received  it  forty  years  ago 
to-morrow." 

Very  soon  M.  Hamon  thought  it  wise  that  the  last 
Sacraments  should  be  administered,  but  before  receiving 
them  she  said  she  wished  to  ask  forgiveness  of  the 
Sisters  for  all  her  faults.  The  poor  Mere  du  Fargis  in 
an  agony  of  tears,  begged  her  to  spare  them,  but 
Angelique  persisted,  and  in  gentlest,*  humblest  terms, 
begged  forgiveness  for  any  and  all  her  mistakes  and 
faults. 

There  seemed  in  her  none  of  the  fear  of  death  which 
had  so  terribly  oppressed  the  first  Mere  Angelique. 
Perhaps  the  greatness  of  the  trials  through  which 
Angelique  de  St  Jean  had  been  brought  had  lifted  her 
up  to  that  quiet  land  of  peace  from  which  the  Celestial 
Country  can  be  seen,  and  from  which  there  are  no 
glimpses  of  Doubting  Castle.  The  Psalm  she  asked 
for  after  her  Communion  was  "  Benedic,  anima  mea, 
Domino." 

A  little  later  in  her  illness  she  said  to  the  poor  Sisters  : 
"Above  all,  have  a  supreme  trust  in  God;  nothing 
hurtful  can  happen  to  you  so  long  as  you  hope  in 
Him." 


DEATH  OF  ANGfiLIQUE  DE  ST  JEAN  453 

On  the  2Qth  of  January  the  soul  of  the  last  of  the 
wonderful  group  of  Arnauld  women  fled  to  God — in 
peace.  She  was  fifty-nine. 

M.  Arnauld  wrote  a  long  and  touching-  letter  to  the 
Mere  du  Fargis,  who  had  resumed  for  the  fourth  time 
the  office  of  Abbess.  He  speaks  of  the  Community's 
incomparable  loss,  and  of  the  sure  hope  they  have 
that  she  prays  for  those  she  loved  on  earth.  It  is 
a  most  striking-  letter ;  he  says  he  never  likes  to  think 
that  bereavements  are  sent  as  punishments,  but  rather 
that  those  whom  God  takes  are,  as  it  were,  ripe  for 
Him,  and  the  loss  may  be  a  means  of  grace  to  us. 

To  the  sister  of  Angelique  de  St  Jean  he  wrote,  that 
we  must  look  at  thing's  from  the  point  of  view  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  that  it  is  a  gain  to  Him  when  those  living- 
stones  destined  to  form  parts  of  the  Divine  Temple  take 
their  place  therein  at  the  time  ordained  for  them  by  His 
Providence. 

As  we  have  said,  Angelique  de  St  Jean  is  in  no  way 
less  remarkable  than  her  two  aunts.  She  had  a  strong1, 
tender,  sad  soul.  She  is  really  the  historian  of  Port 
Royal ;  to  her  we  owe  the  three  volumes  of  Mdmoires 
pour  Servir  a  r Histoire  de  Port  Royal. 

She  was  a  rather  formidable  person,  and  could  put 
on  a  glacial  manner ;  and  she  possessed  the  soul  of  a 
warrior.  She  was  a  disciple  of  Pascal ;  Nicole  and  the 
gentle  M.  de  Sainte  Marthe  were  not  congenial  to  her. 

She  left  three  volumes  of  Conferences  on  the  Rule, 
and  there  are  many  beautiful  words  in  them.  She  is 
not  extreme  in  asceticism ;  she  wishes  the  food  to  be 
plain  but  sufficient.  And  there  is  no  trace  of  a  desire 
to  communicate  seldom. 

"The  Christians  in  the  first  century,"  she  says, 
"communicated  daily  ;  do  we  not  frustrate  Jesus  Christ's 
intentions  for  us,  if  we  do  not  prepare  ourselves  to 
communicate  frequently  ?  " 

She  says  that  she  would  like  "to  take  care  of  one  or 
two  feeble-minded  children,  'des  innocents,1  for  these 
can  be  guarded  against  dangers,  and  the  Sisters  who 
look  after  them  must  remember  that  Jesus  has 


454  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  PORT  KOYAL 

humbled  Himself  to  dwell  in  these  apparently  defective 
souls." 

And  at  the  end  of  the  last  Conference,  when  the 
clouds  were  thickening-,  she  says:  "We  can  only  give 
thanks  to  God  and  quicken  ourselves  with  joy  and 
thankfulness,  so  that  we  may  bear  all  that  it  pleases 
Him  to  send  us." 

Her  brother,  M.  de  Luzanci,  who  had  retired  in 
1679  to  Pomponne,  died  a  few  weeks  later,  at  her 
brother's  house  in  Paris  (Hotel  de  Pomponne).  He 
was  sixty-one ;  forty  years  had  passed  since  he  had 
left  his  soldier's  life  and  devoted  himself  to  the  life  of  a 
Port  Royal  Solitaire. 

Eustachie  de  Bregy,  of  whom  we  heard  so  much 
during  the  first  persecution,  died  in  March  1684,  and 
in  May  the  worthy  Superior,  M.  Grenet,  who  had 
served  Port  Royal  well  and  loyally,  was  taken  from 
them.  A.  M.  Taconnet  replaced  him,  a  most  gentle 
and  pious  person,  but  he  died  in  a  few  months.  He 
was  replaced  by  M.  de  la  Grange. 

M.  Hamon,  perhaps  the  most  irreparable  loss  to  the 
Community,  died  in  1687.  We  have  already  spoken 
of  this  perfect  example  of  the  Christian  physician.  He 
had  spent  thirty-seven  years  at  Port  Royal,  only  leaving 
that  holy  spot  for  short  journeys,  as  when  in  1675  he 
visited  the  Bishop  of  Alet,  and  in  1677  the  celebrated 
Abbe"  de  Ranee,  founder  of  the  Abbey  of  La  Trappe. 
A  very  short  time  before  his  death,  he  had  presided  at 
a  meeting  of  the  Faculty  of  Medicine  to  hear  a  thesis 
read  by  the  son  of  an  old  friend,  M.  Dodart.  A  few 
days  after  this  he  fell  ill,  watched  over  by  this  same 
young  man,  and  passed  away  full  of  joy  and  peace. 

M.  Dodart  told  M.  de  Pontchateau  that  he,  in  seeing 
M.  Hamon  die,  had  seen  indeed  how  the  saints  die.1 

To  Port  Royal  he  had  been  not  only  physician  but 
spiritual  guide  in  the  worst  days,  and  there  are  few 
more  attractive  portraits  than  the  one  given  by 
Fontaine  of  this  holy  and  humble  man  of  heart. 

1  Sainte  Beuve^  vol.  v.,  399. 


DEATH  OF  THE  M&RE  DU  F  AEGIS  455 

The  Sister  Christine  Briquet,  to  whom  we  owe  part 
of  the  story  of  the  first  persecution,  died  in  1689. 

A  great  loss  was  now  to  fall  on  them. 

The  Abbess,  the  Mere  du  Fargis,  feeling-  that  death 
was  drawing-  near,  laid  down  her  office  in  1690,  and 
Racine's  aunt  was  elected.  The  Mere  du  Fargis,  Marie 
de  Sainte  Madeleine,  was  born  in  1618,  and  had  been 
brought  up  by  the  first  Mere  Angelique,  somewhat 
against  her  father's  wishes.  She  belonged  to  one  of 
the  great  families  of  France,  but  nothing  was  spared 
the  young  novice  on  that  account  (as  we  may  well 
believe),  and  she  herself  was  the  most  docile  and  gentle 
of  people,  begging  that  great  lady,  Madame  de  Longue- 
ville,  not  to  treat  her  as  a  cousin,  for  no  one  in  the 
Community  knew  that  there  was  any  connection 
between  them. 

We  have  already  seen  the  calm  dignity  of  the  Sister 
in  the  times  of  persecution,  and  everything  we  hear  of 
her  points  to  a  remarkable  degree  of  true  saintliness. 
She  is  especially  and  rightly  afraid  of  anything  like 
arrogance  springing  out  of  the  spirit  of  resistance  to 
tyranny,  and  this  is  significant  when  we  remember  that 
Racine  noted  that  at  the  time  of  the  first  persecution, 
the  Mere  du  Fargis  and  the  Mere  Angelique  de  St  Jean 
represented  two  slightly  different  tendencies  of  thought 
at  Port  Royal. 

She  was  terribly  ill  in  her  later  days,  and  wrote  some 
touching  letters  to  M.  Arnauld.  For  the  last  year  of 
her  life  she  was  blind,  and  the  historian  notes  how 
patient  she  was  under  this  trial,  especially  as  she  had 
been  fond  of  reading. 

She  is  one  of  the  true  and  faithful  children  of  the 
first  Mere  Angelique,  and  from  her  extreme  gentleness 
and  a  certain  cachet  of  distinction  which  no  humility 
could  conceal,  one  of  the  most  attractive  of  them  all. 

The  Mere  du  Fargis  was  the  last  of  those  of  Port 
Royal  who  could  command  any  respect  at  Court,  unless 
indeed  we  except  poor  Mademoiselle  de  Vertus,  who 
lingered  on  until  1692,  and  to  whom  M.  Hamon's  death 
had  been  a  terrible  loss,  for  from  1681  she  had  been 


456  FINAL  DESTEUCTION  OF  POET  ROYAL 

almost  entirely  confined  to  bed.  M.  du  Guet,  the 
friend  of  Antoine  Arnauld,  was  a  great  friend  to  her 
in  her  last  years.  She  was  the  last  of  those  whom  we 
have  called  the  great  ladies  of  Port  Royal. 

M.  de  Pontchateau  died  in  1690,  as  also  did  M.  de 
Sainte  Marthe,  at  the  age  of  seventy.  He  belonged  to 
a  well-known  family  of  Paris,  and  was  ever  not  only  a 
faithful  but  a  courageous  friend  to  Port  Royal ;  he  is 
one  of  those  deeply  spiritual  and  hidden  lives  of  which 
the  "race"  of  Port  Royal  has  so  many  examples.  We 
can  never  forget  that  it  was  M.  de  Sainte  Marthe  who 
prowled  around  Port  Royal  on  dark  nights  in  the  first 
persecution  to  give  such  consolation  as  he  could. 

It  was  in  1709  that  M.  Wallon  de  Beaupuis  ended 
his  long  life  of  ceaseless  devotion.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  he  was  one  of  the  masters  of  the  Petites  Ecoles  ; 
and  he  was  M.  de  Tillemont's  confessor  up  to  the  time 
of  the  historian's  death.  M.  de  Beaupuis  was  the  son 
of  a  lawyer,  and  was  born  at  Beauvais  in  1621. 
Sent  to  Paris  in  1637,  he  was  taught  rhetoric  by  the 
well-known  Jesuit,  Pere  Nouet,  and  was  also  a  pupil  of 
Antoine  Arnauld's  in  philosophy.  Long  years  after- 
wards, M.  de  Beaupuis  used  to  speak  with  delight  about 
a  disputation  of  his,  in  which  M.  Arnauld  had  come  to 
his  rescue. 

De  Beaupuis,  in  the  course  of  vacations  spent  at 
Beauvais,  met  M.  Manguelen,  and  they  became  great 
friends.  M.  Manguelen  lent  the  youth  La  Frtquente 
Communion,  which  seems  to  have  greatly  impressed 
him. 

M.  Manguelen  sent  him  to  M.  Singlin  and  M.  de 
Rebours,  and  with  them  De  Beaupuis  found  Arnauld 
and  an  old  friend,  M.  Hermant,  who  had  been  a 
Professor  at  Beauvais,  and  was  a  great  friend  of  les 
notres  of  Port  Royal.  He  went  to  Port  Royal,  and 
Arnauld  sent  him  to  call  on  Descartes  on  his  behalf! 
Evidently  Arnauld  recognised  his  pupil's  philosophical 
powers.  There  seems  to  have  been  some  family 
opposition  to  his  throwing  in  his  lot  with  Port  Royal, 
but  it  would  not  appear  to  have  been  very  serious.  He 


M.  DE  BEAUPUIS  457 

writes  to  his  sister  that  she  is  not  to  be  alarmed  because 
he  is  so  great  a  friend  of  Antoine  Arnauld,  quite  in  the 
manner  of  an  Oxford  undergraduate  who  might  have 
written  in  the  last  century  to  justify  his  friendship  with 
Newman  or  with  Pusey. 

From  1647  to  1660  M.  de  Beaupuis  directed  the 
schools,  and  after  the  dispersal  of  them,  he  lived  with 
Pascal's  brother-in-law,  M.  Pe"rier,  and  educated  his  sons. 

He  took  priest's  orders  in  1666,  and  was  made 
Superior  of  the  Seminary  at  Beauvais,  and  he  was  also 
Superior  of  two  convents  of  Ursuline  nuns.  For  a 
time  he  was  unmolested,  for  the  Bishop  Choart  de 
Buzanval  was  one  of  the  first  Episcopal  friends  of  Port 
Royal,  and  for  some  time  was  M.  de  Beaupuis's  con- 
fessor. Those  ten  years  must  have  been  happy  ones, 
for  a  priest's  life  of  preaching,  of  administering  the 
Sacraments,  of  directing  souls,  of  occasionally  being 
allowed  to  witness  the  conversion  of  sinners,  is  un- 
doubtedly a  happy  one. 

In  1676  the  Bishop  died,  and  his  successor  was  a 
person  who  was  anxious  to  please  those  in  high  places 
and  to  crush  any  tendencies  to  the  supposed  heresy  of 
Beauvais.  M.  de  Beaupuis  was  deprived  of  all  his 
occupations,  was  not  even  permitted  to  hear  confes- 
sions. He  made  no  resistance,  but  retired  quietly  to 
his  sister's  house,  where  he  lived  for  twenty-nine  years, 
passing  his  days  in  an  unbroken  round  of  prayer  and 
study.  "It  must  be  owned,"  the  Bishop  said  to  one  of 
his  satellites,  "these  are  very  respectable  people  on 
whom  we  are  being  particularly  hard."  And  Sainte 
Beuve  tells  us  how  that  in  1697,  when  the  Bishop,  now 
a  Cardinal,  returned  after  a  long  absence  to  Beauvais, 
M.  de  Beaupuis  having  gone  to  pay  his  respects,  the 
Bishop  overwhelmed  him  with  attentions.  He  knew 
that  nothing  would  be  asked  of  him  and  that  it  was 
quite  safe  to  be  very  civil.  The  situation  is  not  unique. 

M.  de  Beaupuis  was  extraordinarily  self-disciplined, 
and  his  life  was  even  more  ascetic  than  that  of  M.  de 
Tillemont. 

Every  year  he  made  an  expedition  to  Port  Royal, 


458  FINAL  DESTEUCTION  OF  POET  KOY  AL 

one  of  the  few  interruptions  to  the  daily  round  of  prayer 
and  study ;  and  he  usually  paid  a  visit  to  Paris.  One 
year — it  is  sad  to  read  of  this — M.  de  Beaupuis  went  as 
far  as  La  Trappe,  in  order  to  visit  his  old  pupil,  Dom 
Pierre  Le  Nain,  M.  de  Tillemont's  brother.  When  he 
arrived,  the  Abbot,  the  celebrated  De  Ranee,  refused 
permission  for  the  interview  to  take  place.  This  was  a 
real  wound ;  he  journeyed  to  Tillemont  to  pour  out  his 
heart  to  the  other  brother.  M.  de  Tillemont  wrote  to 
M.  de  Ranee,  who  replied  that  M.  de  Beaupuis  was 
not  in  favour  with  the  Court,  and  that  the  Abbot  had 
been  forbidden  to  receive  him.  There  had  been  a 
supposed  plot  or  conspiracy  among"  some  of  the  clergy 
at  Beauvais  and  four  Canons  had  been  sent  to  the 
Bastille.  M.  de  Beaupuis  had  proved  his  innocence, 
but  suspicion  clung  round  him,  and  with  the  petty 
cruelty  of  a  tyrant,  Louis  XIV.  had  conveyed  his 
sentiments  as  to  the  blameless  and  holy  priest.  Of 
him  De  Tillemont  wrote  in  his  will,  that  he  for  ever 
thanked  God  for  having  granted  to  him  the  blessing  of 
being  educated  by  a  master  who  was  destitute  of 
ambition.  Certainly  this  is  one  of  the  marks  of  our 
Port  Royalists,  the  lack  of  ambition. 

M.  de  Beaupuis  had  to  bear  the  sorrow  of  losing 
friend  after  friend.  We  have  seen  how  he  watched  by 
de  Tillemont's  dying  bed,  and  accompanied  the  funeral 
to  Port  Royal.  Another  pupil  no  less  dear  was  M.  du 
Fosse,  who  died  in  1692. 

And  so  the  years  passed  by,  and  when  he  was 
growing  very  old  and  infirm,  he  was  begged  to  relax 
something  of  his  austerities ;  he  only  replied  that  the 
near  approach  of  death  made  it  only  more  needful  for 
him  to  be  strict  and  watchful. 

He  passed  away  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven.  As  one 
of  the  historians  of  Port  Royal  remarks,  the  whole  of 
the  De  Beaupuis  family  were  saints.  No  less  than  six 
of  his  nieces  entered  the  life  of  Religion,  four  of  them 
were  nuns  of  Port  Royal.  Two  of  his  nephews  were 
at  La  Trappe,  one  a  monk,  the  other  an  oblate ;  both 
had  died  before  that  unfortunate  visit. 


DEATH  OF  ANTOINE  ARNAULD      459 

He  was  taken  away  before  the  final  dispersion  of 
Port  Royal.  As  we  read  the  story  of  these  holy, 
blameless,  learned  clergy,  who  were  more  or  less 
associated  with  Port  Royal,  our  hearts  burn  with 
indignation.  Louis  XIV.,  entirely  uninstructed  in 
religion,  was  possessed  with  the  idea  that,  as  one 
modern  historian,  M.  Lavisse,  remarks,  "  Le  Roi, 
comme  Dieu,  fait  ce  qui  lui  plait."  That  was  all. 
The  views  and  ideals  of  Port  Royal  were  incomprehen- 
sible to  him  ;  the  idea  of  training-  up  an  instructed  laity 
was  ridiculous,  and  so  Port  Royal  was  to  him  merely 
a  nest  of  conspirators,  and  the  Gallican  Church  was 
prevented  from  being  what  we  hope  our  own  branch  of 
the  Church  has  been,  a  bulwark  against  the  attacks  of 
unbelief.1 

In  1694  the  greatest  of  the  Arnaulds  ended  his 
fifteen  years  of  exile. 

After  his  departure  from  Paris  in  1679,  Antoine 
Arnauld  had  wandered  from  place  to  place,  and  at  last 
settled  in  Brussels.  The  Pere  Quesnel,  and  M.  du 
Guet  lived  with  him,  as  did  M.  Ruth  d'Ans,  a  former 
confessor  at  Port  Royal,  and  M.  Ernest  Guelphe,  his 
secretary.  They  led  the  life  of  religious.  M.  Arnauld 
said  Mass  every  day  in  a  room  set  apart  for  a  chapel, 
and  recited  his  Breviary,  and  spent  much  time  in  prayer 
and  meditation.  He  had  never  been  anything  but  a 
devout  Catholic,  and  had  no  leanings  towards  Protest- 
antism. He  had  a  very  great  devotion  for  the  Psalms, 
and  as  his  eyesight  began  to  fail,  he  set  to  work  to  learn 
the  Psalter  by  heart.  In  August  1694  he  fell  ill,  and 
died  on  the  8th.  He  passed  away  in  peace,  with  the 
dear  friends  of  his  exile  around  him,  and  the  comfort 
of  the  last  Sacraments  to  sustain  him,  those  Sacra- 
ments of  which  so  many  at  Port  Royal  had  been 
deprived. 

Antoine  Arnauld  is  a  great  figure.  He  never  faltered 
in  his  devotion  for  truth,  his  passion  for  righteousness. 
And  he  had  no  heretical  views. 

St  Augustine  has  been  condemned  by  no  Pope,  and 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  IX. 


460  FINAL  DESTEUCTION  OF  POET  ROYAL 

to  St  Augustine  Arnauld  could  and  did  appeal.  That  a 
man  who  was  a  true  Catholic,  a  learned  theologian,  a 
devoted  and  able  guide  of  souls,  should  have  been  driven 
into  exile,  is  a  miserable  bit  of  history. 

Arnauld's  writings  fill  a  vast  number  of  volumes,  yet 
there  is  little  which  is  of  permanent  value.  This  is  the 
fate  of  all  or  nearly  all  controversial  writers  whose  minds 
are  of  the  second  order.  Varied  as  were  his  gifts,  he 
had  no  creative  genius,  no  great  powers  of  metaphysical 
thought. 

But  he  did  the  especial  work  to  which  he  was  called 
— the  defence  of  truth,  the  upholding  of  a  moral  standard, 
and  he  was  "  sans  peur  et  sans  reproche  "  ;  he  was  fault- 
less in  his  life,  his  temper,  his  courage. 

It  is  difficult  not  to  wish  sometimes  that  in  the  first 
days  of  persecution  Arnauld  had  been  more  ready  to 
submit  his  judgment  at  times  to  others.  In  the  later 
days,  one  has  nothing  but  admiration  for  him,  nothing 
but  regret  that  he  and  others  were  banished  and  silenced 
and  compelled  to  relinquish  the  service  of  the  Church  in 
France. 

What  could  that  Church  not  have  effected,  had 
the  moral  teaching  of  St  Cyran  and  of  Arnauld,  the 
spirituality  and  the  love  for  Holy  Scripture  of  De  Saci 
and  of  Le  Tourneux,  been  suffered  to  remain  as  living 
influences  ? 

There  will  be  always  men  of  different  minds,  of 
different  tendencies  of  thought,  in  the  Church  of  God. 
It  is  a  terrible  unfaithfulness  to  God  when  a  dominant 
party  in  any  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church  seeks  to 
crush  and  drive  away  those  who  see  truth  in  another 
and  equally  important  aspect. 

Arnauld  was  ready  to  defend  the  faith  against  friend 
or  foe,  and  he  had  controversies  on  grace  with  Nicole, 
on  philosophy  with  Malebranche.  He  defended  the 
translation  of  the  New  Testament,  he  was  prompt  to 
defend  Catholics  against  Protestant  attacks,  and  his 
letters  form  many  volumes. 

"Rest!"  he  exclaimed  once  to  Nicole,  "have  I  not 
all  eternity  to  rest  in?"  And  so  fighting,  working, 


DEATH  OF  M.  DU  FOSSE  461 

praying,  he  ended  a  life  which  had  been  single  in 
purpose — the  purpose  of  serving  the  cause  of  God's 
Truth. 

He  lies  in  the  Church  of  St  Catherine  at  Brussels, 
but  his  heart  was  brought  to  Port  Royal,  and  an  epitaph 
was  composed  by  an  ecclesiastic  and  minor  poet, 
M.  Santeuil,  who  had  a  great  attraction  towards  Port 
Royal,  but  who  lacked  the  courage  to  stick  to  an 
unpopular  cause.  He  tried  to  retract  his  verses  in  after 
years,  and  shared  the  fate  of  people  who  try  to  please 
everybody. 

Arnauld  left  various  legacies  to  his  faithful  friends, 
and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  bequeathed  books 
to  his  great-nephew,  the  son  of  M.  Borroger,  whom 
Arnauld  had  married  to  Mile,  de  Sericourt  Le  Maitre. 

M.  du  Fosse,  the  faithful  friend  and  chronicler  of 
Port  Royal,  died  in  1698.  His  sister-in-law,  Madame 
Borroger,  writing  a  week  before  his  death  to  her  cousin, 
M.  de  Pomponne,  says  :  "  He  is  very  ill,  but  his  days  are 
spent  in  prayer,  in  reading  and  in  commenting  on  Holy 
Scripture."  Joy  was  reflected  on  his  face  as  he  lay 
dying. 

Du  Fosse,  as  he  reveals  himself  in  his  Memoirs,  is  a 
wonderfully  lovable,  upright,  loyal  gentleman,  possessing 
excellent  literary  style,  and  a  great  deal  of  knowledge  of 
all  kinds.  He  was  a  good  classical  scholar  and  a 
learned  ecclesiastical  historian,  but  he  also  knew  a  great 
deal  about  medicine,  and  used  this  knowledge  to  help 
the  peasants  on  his  estate.  He  was  charitable  and  kind 
to  the  poor,  and  in  the  appalling  famine  of  1694  he  did 
his  best  for  the  wretched  peasants,  whose  lot  was  indeed 
terrible. 

Du  Fosse  seems  to  have  been  both  loving  and  loved  ; 
his  relations  with  his  parents,  his  brothers  and  sisters, 
were  always  deeply  affectionate.  One  of  his  sisters, 
when  she  was  ill,  and  about  to  undergo  some  terrible 
operation,  could  only  bring  herself  to  endure  it  if  Pierre 
would  hold  her,  which  he  did. 

Sainte  Beuve  quotes  a  delightful  letter  of  a  friend  of 
Du  Fosse,  written  just  after  his  death.  "  M.  du  Fosse," 


462  FINAL  DESTEUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

says  M.  Vuillart,  "was  tall,  very  well  made,  and  was 
endowed  with  a  perfectly  charming  temper.  He  had  a 
clear,  decisive,  and  equitable  mind,  and  as  he  was  a  good 
business  man  he  was  resorted  to  by  his  neighbours  to 
decide  all  their  differences." 

As  Sainte  Beuve  says,  these  letters,  written  by 
intimate  friends,  are  indeed  funeral  orations. 

M.  du  Fosse  had  ended  his  own  Memoirs  with  the 
death  of  his  lifelong  friend,  the  historian,  M.  de  Tille- 
mont,  whose  death  preceded  his  own  by  only  ten 
months. 

After  the  peace  of  the  Church,  M.  de  Tillemont  left 
Paris,  where,  as  we  know,  he  had  lived  with  Du  Fosse 
and  with  M.  Le  Tourneux ;  he  chose  a  small  parish 
between  Port  Royal  and  Chevreuse  for  his  home,  and 
in  those  years  of  tranquillity  M.  de  Saci  induced  him  to 
take  minor  orders,  and  finally  those  of  the  priesthood  in 
1676.  He  was  just  forty  ;  and  like  all  other  friends  of 
Port  Royal  who  became  priests,  he  celebrated  his  first 
sung  Mass  in  the  Church  of  the  Monastery.  It  was  on 
St  Augustine's  Day,  the  25th  of  August  1676.  In 
1679  M.  de  Tillemont  retired  to  a  small  estate  of 
Tillemont,  which  belonged  to  his  family,  not  far  from 
Vincennes. 

Tillemont  was  from  that  time  his  home ;  he  paid  a 
visit  to  Antoine  Arnauld  in  1681,  and  once  a  year  he 
visited  his  brother  at  the  Monastery  of  La  Trappe. 

The  picture  given  us  of  M.  de  Tillemont's  life  is  very 
beautiful.  Day  after  day  he  rose  at  four  in  summer,  a 
little  later  in  winter,  and  spent  the  day  in  prayer,  in 
study,  and,  to  some  extent,  in  good  works,  for  he  was 
always  willing  to  write  to  people,  and  to  teach  his 
servants.  It  was  a  feature  of  his  orderly  life  that  he 
always  said  the  Office  at  the  exact  hour  which  he  had 
marked  out  for  it. 

Student  as  he  was,  he  loved  the  round  of  services, 
and  never  felt  it  an  interruption  to  leave  his  work  and 
recite  an  Office.  He  liked  to  go  on  Sundays  and 
festivals  to  his  parish  church  and  act  as  deacon  at 
the  sung  Mass,  and  he  had  a  great  love  for  plain  song. 


M.  DE  TILLEMONT  463 

Every  day  after  dinner  he  took  his  stick  and  went  out 
to  walk  for  two  hours,  speaking  to  the  people  he  met ; 
in  his  gentleness  and  reverence  for  children  he  reminds 
us  of  our  own  saint  and  poet,  Keble.  De  Tillemont 
loved  to  see  tiny  children  at  Mass,  and  was  not  at  all 
disturbed  if  they  cried.  "  He  thought  their  presence 
at  the  Divine  Office  was  a  real  benefit  to  the  Church, 
of  which  they  are  ...  the  most  holy  part ;  he  thought 
their  presence  really  contributed  to  the  efficacy  of  the 
prayers  which  were  being  offered  to  God." 

How  different  is  this  tender,  beautiful  view  of 
childhood  from  the  temper  of  those  who  would  shut 
out  children  from  the  Lord's  Service  on  His  day. 

M.  de  Tillemont's  father,  M.  Le  Nain,  survived  his 
illustrious  son,  but  only  for  three  weeks.  The  relations 
between  them  were  most  touching,  perhaps  all  the 
more  so,  as  the  mother  of  the  historian  died  some 
years  earlier.  M.  de  Tillemont  had  come  to  Paris  to 
see  her,  and  on  arriving  at  his  home  was  told  that  she 
was  dead.  It  was  her  tender  and  loving  son  who  sang 
her  funeral  Mass  and  committed  her  body  to  the  grave. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  M.  de  Tillemont's 
ecclesiastical  history ;  he  left  various  other  writings, 
some  of  which  were  published  after  his  death  ;  amongst 
them  two  volumes  of  letters. 

Sainte  Beuve  quotes  one  which  De  Tillemont  wrote 
to  Bossuet  in  1695,  which,  says  Sainte  Beuve,  is  as  it 
were  the  final  hymn  of  his  life ;  he  is  writing  of  the 
union  of  the  soul  with  God  which  results  in  perfect 
adoration.  How  at  last  our  words,  our  praises,  end  in 
"a  silence  worthy  of  His  Greatness  .  .  .  our  soul  .  .  . 
will  only  see  God,  will  only  hear  God,  will  only  enjoy 
God  ;  finally,  will  only  love  God.  This  happiness  is  the 
happiness  which  God  promises  us.  ..." 

De  Tillemont's  letters  are  grave  and  devout,  and  to 
those  he  loved  full  of  affection. 

Some  of  the  most  beautiful  are  to  his  niece,  who  was 
a  nun,  and  in  these  he  tells  her  of  the  dangers  and  of 
the  joys  of  the  Religious  Life,  and  of  its  special 
temptations. 


464  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

His  secretary,  M.  Tronchai,  wrote  a  book  called 
La  Vie  et  r Esprit  de  M.  de  Tillemont,  and  in  it  we 
see  something  of  his  inward  life.  He  had  great 
spiritual  discernment. 

One  of  his  Meditations  is  based  on  the  thought 
that  God's  mercy  makes  our  faults  to  be  means  of 
doing  us  good. 

Another  is,  that  to  omit  or  to  cut  short  a  good 
deed  is  to  take  away  a  pearl  from  the  Crown  which 
awaits  us. 

Speaking  of  penitence,  he  writes:  "Do  not  let  us 
deceive  ourselves  ;  there  is  no  sin  either  in  any  of  the 
saints  or  in  us  which  can  remain  unpunished.  We 
must  chasten  ourselves  or  God  will  chasten  us.  Blessed 
are  those  whom  He  does  not  keep  unpunished  until  this 
life  is  over. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  adorable  secrets  of  God's  fatherly 
goodness  towards  His  children,  that  at  times  He  takes 
care  to  purify  them  by  the  sorrow  He  sends  them,  at 
times  through  sickness,  at  times  in  other  ways. 

"  Everything  which  happens  to  us  in  this  world 
against  our  inclination,  against  our  wishes,  against  our 
natural  bent,  is  a  penance  which  God  sends  us,  which 
we  should  receive  with  submission,  and  which  we  ought 
to  use  with  care.  We  must  not  murmur  against  the 
injustice  of  those  who  hate  us,  nor  against  the  neglect 
or  evil  temper  of  those  among  whom  we  dwell.  All 
these  are  simply  the  servants  of  God  our  Father,  Who 
punishes  us  by  them,  so  that  we  may  be  made  worthy 
of  the  heritage  He  is  preparing  for  us." 

It  is  all  very  simple,  and  yet  profound;  he  reminds 
us  again  of  our  own  Keble  and  his  sober  standard  of 
feeling  in  matters  of  practical  religion.1 

About  ten  months  before  M.  de  Tillemont's  death, 
his  health  began  to  fail.  A  cough  which  he  had 
neglected  grew  worse,  and  urged  by  M.  de  Beaupuis, 
his  confessor,  his  dear  friend,  his  master  at  les  Petites 
Ecoles,  he  came  to  Paris.  On  the  Epiphany  he  made 
his  Communion ;  he  was  too  ill  to  say  Mass  ;  on  the 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  X. 


THE  AKCHBISHOFS  TEERIBLE  DEATH  465 

loth  he  died,  quite  suddenly;  on  rising-  from  his  bed, 
he  fell  back  in  the  arms  of  his  faithful  secretary  and 
biographer,  M.  Tronchai,  and  passed  away  with  no 
pain,  no  suffering.  A  fitting  end  to  a  life  which  seems 
to  us  to  have  never  lost  the  innocence  of  baptism. 

Poor  M.  du  Fosse — he  had  hoped,  he  says,  that  as 
he  was  the  elder,  and  apparently  was  himself  a  dying 
man,  he  would  have  been  spared  this  terrible  sorrow ; 
but  he  writes,  "  God  has  shortened  his  [de  Tille- 
mont's]  time  of  penitence,  and  called  him  suddenly, 
whereas  for  me  who  have  lived  so  ordinary  a  life,  it 
was  needful  that  God  should  give  me  time  to  sacrifice 
myself  to  Him." 

M.  de  Tillemont  was  buried  at  Port  Royal. 

Meanwhile,  during-  these  sad  years,  when  the  Com- 
munity of  Port  Royal  lost  one  after  another  of  its  mem- 
bers, Racine  was  always  a  firm  friend,  and  served  Port 
Royal  whenever  he  could. 

In  1695  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  died,  struck  down 
by  apoplexy,  and  passed  out  of  this  life  unaided  by 
priest  or  sacrament. 

Five  months  before  his  death  Racine  had  been 
entreating  him  to  give  the  unfortunate  nuns  a  Superior 
in  place  of  M.  de  la  Grange ;  the  Bishop  of  Soissons, 
who  was  present,  said  to  Racine  afterwards  :  "  Be  patient 
— don't  disturb  yourself;  don't  you  see  death  in  his 
face?" 

There  was  something  extraordinarily  terrible  and 
dreary  about  this  man's  death.  He  was  found  by  his 
servants  unconscious  and  dying;  and  the  king  himself 
seems  to  have  shuddered  when  he  was  told  of  the 
circumstances.  For  that  de  Harlai's  private  life  was 
scandalous,  seems  to  have  been  a  well-known  fact. 

Sainte  Beuve  quotes  a  letter  in  which  it  is  said  that 
one  eminent  prelate  absolutely  refused  to  preach  a  funeral 
sermon  for  the  late  Archbishop,  saying:  "Two  things 
prevent  me — his  life  and  his  death." 

It  was  well  known  that  the  Archbishop  had  fully 
meant  to  make  an  end  of  Port  Royal.  His  sister, 
Madame  de  Harlai,  had  been  nominated  Abbess  of 

2G 


466  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

Port  Royal  de  Paris  after  the  death  of  Mere  Dorothea 
Perdreau ;  but  Madame  de  Harlai  was  a  holy  woman, 
and  incapable  of  entertaining  any  evil  design.  On  her 
death  the  Archbishop  nominated  his  niece,  who  was  a 
very  different  person. 

M.  Tronchai,  M.  de  Tillemont's  secretary,  whose  sister 
was  a  nun  at  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  wrote  to  the  Abbess 
Agnes  de  Sainte  Thecle,  the  aunt  of  Racine,  that  there 
was  a  plan  to  unite  Port  Royal  de  Paris  to  Port  Royal 
des  Champs ;  the  nuns  at  Port  Royal  des  Champs  were 
to  be  dispersed.  But  M.  de  Harlai's  death  prevented 
the  execution  of  this  scheme. 

The  new  Archbishop,  M.  de  Noailles,  Bishop  of 
Chalons,  whom  the  king  chose,  was  a  good  man,  a 
gentleman,  a  theologian,  but  incapable  of  holding 
his  own  against  the  king  or  the  Jesuits.  He  was  the 
type  of  man  who  is  obstinate  when  he  ought  to  give 
way,  and  weak  when  he  ought  to  be  firm. 

He  had  confidence  in  his  own  judgment  and  his  own 
good  intentions,  and  he  meant  to  hold  the  balance 
between  two  parties.  He  is  not  the  first  nor  was  he  the 
last  ecclesiastic  who,  having  been  put  in  a  place  far 
beyond  his  capacity  to  fill,  manages  to  be  more  cruel  and 
more  unjust  to  people  and  schools  of  thought  whom  he 
knows  to  be  in  the  right,  than  are  their  declared 
enemies.  Few  things  are  more  fatal  to  the  Church  than 
the  "  peace-at-any-price  "  policy — or  the  caution  of  a 
man  whose  duty  it  is  to  be  bold.  But  at  first  the  Port 
Royalists  rejoiced  in  trembling.  Racine  wrote  a  letter 
of  warning  to  his  aunt,  the  burden  of  which  was  to 
"keep  out  of  sight."  "  I  know,"  he  writes,  "you  are  to 
be  absolutely  trusted,  but  the  indiscreet  delight  of  one 
of  your  friends  is  much  to  be  dreaded." 

All  went  well  for  a  little  while ;  friendly  letters  were 
exchanged  between  the  Community  and  the  Arch- 
bishop; and  in  1696  Racine  prevailed  on  M.  de 
Noailles  to  permit  the  re-election  of  his  aunt  as 
Abbess  and  the  appointment  of  M.  Roynette  as 
Superior. 

For   a   little  while   there  was   a    respite,  but  the 


M.  DE  NOAILLES  AT  POET  EOYAL  467 

Community  steadily  diminished  in  numbers,  and,  as 
we  have  seen,  friend  after  friend  passed  away.  In  1697 
M.  de  Noailles  "visited"  Port  Royal  des  Champs — this 
was  just  before  Du  Fosse's  death — and  he  tells  us  how 
the  Archbishop  spoke  to  all  the  Sisters,  and  after  having 
vainly  tried  to  find  some  trace  of  the  evil  doctrines 
or  practices  which  had  been  laid  to  their  charge,  could 
only  discover  all  the  virtues  which  ought  to  be  found 
among  the  brides  of  Christ. 

It  is  said  that  M.  de  Noailles  was  so  much  impressed 
by  this  visit  that  he  begged  the  king  to  allow  Port 
Royal  to  receive  novices — but  all  in  vain.  Nor  was 
the  Comtesse  de  Grammont  more  fortunate ;  she  had 
been  brought  up  at  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  had  made 
retreats  there,  and  fell  into  disgrace  for  doing  so ;  in 
spite  of  all  this,  she  boldly  attacked  the  king  on  the 
subject  of  Port  Royal,  but  was  silenced  ;  though  she  did 
not  lose  favour  again.  Louis  respected  people  who 
were  courageous. 

Racine's  aunt  died  in  1699,  and  the  last  Abbess  of 
Port  Royal  was  elected — Elisabeth  de  Sainte  Anne 
Boulard,  who  was  at  that  time  seventy-one.  She  had 
been  a  nun  at  Port  Royal  since  1651.  In  1700  died 
the  last  of  the  Arnauld  sisters,  the  "  Mademoiselle 
de  Luzanci,"  who  had  entered  Port  Royal  with  Madame 
de  Sainte  Ange. 

It  is  extraordinary,  inexplicable,  that  the  Community 
could  not  have  been  left  to  die  in  peace.  The  brutality 
with  which  a  handful  of  aged  women  were  treated,  was 
such  that  one  can  hardly  bear  to  read  the  account  of 
these  last  days. 

The  Abbess  of  Port  Royal  de  Paris  made  a  fresh 
attempt  to  seize  the  revenues  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs, 
but  the  Archbishop,  now  the  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  with- 
stood her ;  and,  on  hearing  that  this  remarkable  lady 
had  given  a  ball  in  her  convent  parlour,  told  her  that  it 
was  not  fair  that  if  Port  Royal  de  Paris  gave  a  ball, 
Port  Royal  des  Champs  should  pay  for  the  music. 

But  we  are  approaching  the  end. 

Always,   during    the  whole  of  this  period  of  one 


468  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  PORT  ROYAL 

hundred  years,  it  is  on  account  of  someone  else  that  the 
Port  Royal  nuns  had  to  suffer. 

.  The  confessor  of  Port  Royal,  M.  Eustace,  who  was 
in  no  sense  of  the  word  a  theologian,  published  a  work 
in  six  volumes,  the  Cas  de  Conscience,  which  treated  of 
the  scruples  of  a  confessor  who  had  been  perplexed  by 
the  affair  of  Jansenism  and  the  Formulary.  Forty  theo- 
logians were  consulted  and  their  opinions  quoted :  one 
acute  person  had  wisely  refused  to  commit  himself, 
saying  that  he  would  settle  the  doubts  of  the  scrupulous 
confessor  by  word  of  mouth. 

The  excitement  caused  by  this  extraordinary  piece 
of  folly  was  immense.  Some  kind  person  delated  it  to 
Rome,  and  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  was  roused  with 
some  difficulty  to  censure  the  work,  and  to  order  the 
theologians  to  retract  their  signatures.  This  was  done 
by  all  but  two.  Poor  M.  Eustace  stayed  on  at  Port 
Royal  until  1 705,  and  then  retired  to  a  monastery,  to 
spend  the  rest  of  his  life  bewailing  his  folly,  which  had 
been  so  great  that  more  than  one  writer  thinks  that  the 
whole  Cas  de  Conscience  was  a  Jesuit  manifesto. 

The  Pope,  Clement  XL,  urged  on  by  Louis  XIV., 
once  and  for  all  settled  the  question  by  the  bull  Vineam 
Domini  Sabaoth,  presented  to  the  clergy  by  the  Cardinal 
de  Noailles,  with  an  instruction  Against  Jansenism. 
All  quibbles  about  fait  and  droit  were  swept  away,  no 
"respectful  silence"  would  suffice,  and  there  was  a 
general  outbreak  of  severity. 

As  if  this  were  not  enough,  Pere  Quesnel,  Antoine 
Arnauld's  friend,  was  arrested  at  Brussels,  and  all  his 
papers  were  sent  to  Paris.  There  were  all  sorts  of 
mysteries,  or  supposed  mysteries,  ciphers,  and  supposed 
plots,  which  were  only  clumsy  jokes ;  the  Pere  Quesnel 
was  fond  of  harmless  pleasantries  of  this  kind.  Who 
can  wonder  that  people  liable  to  be  arrested  at  any 
moment  employed  disguises?  But  the  letters  and 
papers  were  the  means  of  disgracing  not  a  few  people. 

And  poor  Port  Royal !  A  M.  Marignier,  who  was 
now  their  confessor,  was  compelled  to  present  the  bull 
for  the  nuns'  signatures  ;  and  on  Passion  Sunday  1 706 


POET  ROYAL'S  AGONY  469 

the  Abbess,  in  the  name  of  the  nuns,  declared  that  she 
and  her  community  received  it  with  all  respect,  "sans 
deroger  a  ce  qui  s'est  fait  a  leur  egard  a  la  paix  de 
1'Eglise  sous  le  Pape  Clement  IX."1 

Alas  for  the  community!  As  no  individual  signa- 
ture was  required,  would  it  not  have  been  wiser  to 
yield?  Surely  Sainte  Beuve  is  right  in  saying  that 
it  was  ridiculous  for  a  handful  of  nuns  to  hold  out 
against  the  whole  French  Church. 

Of  course  Pere  Quesnel,  who  had  succeeded  Antoine 
Arnauld  as  the  leader  of  the  party,  approved  their 
action.  He  had  escaped,  and  was  safe  at  Amsterdam. 
But  there  were  others  who  disapproved. 

Be  it  as  it  may,  the  nuns  stood  firm.  April  came, 
and  Sister  after  Sister  died — the  Abbess  herself,  and 
Isabelle  Le  Feron,  who  was  the  last  of  the  nuns  to  serve 
as  historian  or  keeper  of  the  archives  of  Port  Royal. 

Poor  Sisters,  as  they  knelt  around  the  death-bed  of 
their  Mother,  they  seemed  to  hear  youthful  voices 
chanting  melodiously.  Who  knows  ? 

But  Port  Royal  was  dying  too  slowly.  The  Cardinal 
absolutely  refused  permission  for  the  election  of  a  new 
Abbess,  and  M.  Marignier  after  hearing  this  went  home 
to  die  of  a  broken  heart. 

A  decree  of  Council  now  ordered  that  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  Port  Royal  revenue  should  be  taken  from 
them  for  the  benefit  of  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  that  only 
thirty-six  people  should  be  allowed  to  stay  in  the  Abbey ; 
everyone  else  was  to  go.  Eighteen  persons,  who  for 
various  reasons  inhabited  Port  Royal,  left. 

Still,  things  did  not  move  very  quickly.  The  Port 
Royalists  appealed,  and  wrote  remonstrances  and 
memorials,  and  Louis  said  impatiently  to  the  Cardinal 
that  things  must  go  "more  quickly."  The  Cardinal 
sent  two  priests  to  try  to  win  over  the  remaining  Sisters, 
and  this  did  not  succeed  any  better  than  in  the  days 
of  Perefixe.  They  were  excommunicated  on  the  22nd 
November  1707. 

And  the  last  of  the  Solitaires,  M.  Le  Noir  de  Saint 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  XI. 


470  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

Claude,  was  arrested  and  sent  to  the  Bastille,  where  he 
stayed  until  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.  He  had  acted  as 
the  lawyer  of  Port  Royal,  and  had  prepared  all  their 
cases  for  the  avocats. 

Dom  Cle"mencet  tells  us  that  when  M.  Le  Noir  was 
arrested,  some  peasants,  who  had  come  to  Mass,  were 
ready  to  attack  the  guards  who  were  carrying  him  off, 
and  M.  Le  Noir  had  to  beg  them  to  be  quiet.  Poor 
peasants !  they  mourned  for  Port  Royal.  M.  Le  Noir 
led  a  most  pious  and  holy  life  when  he  was  in  the 
Bastille,  and  for  all  the  rest  of  his  life.  He  died  in  1742, 
a  true  spiritual  descendant  of  the  first  Solitaires. 

There  was  a  strong  feeling  in  Paris  that  the  whole 
business  was  extraordinarily  cruel  and  unjust.  It  is 
said  that  a  priest  contrived  to  administer  the  Sacra- 
ments to  the  excommunicated  Sisters,  and  various 
good  women  sent  them  alms.  On  the  2nd  March 
1708  Pope  Clement  XI.  issued  a  bull  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  Port  Royal  des  Champs ;  it  was  to  be  reunited 
to  the  Paris  house.  Only,  a  provision  was  to  be  made  for 
each  member,  choir  and  lay  Sisters,  and  they  were  to  be 
allowed  to  remain  in  their  monastery  and  use  their 
church  until  their  death.  This  comparatively  merciful 
arrangement  did  not  satisfy  Louis,  who  feared  he  would 
die  before  he  could  enjoy  the  intense  pleasure  of  seeing 
Port  Royal  utterly  destroyed,  and  a  second  bull  was 
sent  to  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  which  gave  him  full 
powers  to  disperse  the  nuns  into  other  religious  houses. 

When  this  bull  was  published  there  were  still  some 
struggles  on  the  part  of  the  Sisters ;  they  appealed  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Lyons,  who  was  Primate,  but  this 
was  useless ;  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Paris  had 
received  the  bull,  and  could  act  with  the  full  authority 
of  Rome. 

It  is  a  great  pity  that  the  friends  of  Port  Royal 
now  descended  to  anonymous  letters  and  warnings 
directed  to  Cardinal  de  Noailles.  These  were  probably 
due  to  one  injudicious  friend,  M.  Mabille,  who,  faithful 
as  he  was  to  the  cause,  was  not  of  Port  Royal.  In 
one  letter  the  Cardinal  was  solemnly  exhorted  to 


M.  DE  NOAILLES'  ENQUIRY          471 

remember  the  sad  deaths  of  three  of  his  predecessors : 
M.  de  Marca,  M.  de  Perefixe,  and  M.  de  Harlai. 

M.  de  Noailles  now  resolved  to  institute  a  formal 
enquiry  into  the  affairs  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs  and 
Port  Royal  de  Paris,  in  order  to  satisfy  himself  as  to 
whether  the  union  of  the  two  communities  would  be 
advantageous  or  not.  De  Commodo  et  incommodo,  it 
was  called.  At  Port  Royal  des  Champs  the  neighbour- 
ing- parish  priests  and  the  farmers  were  all  questioned, 
but  nothing  to  the  disadvantage  of  Port  Royal  des 
Champs  could  be  extracted. 

The  members  of  the  Paris  house  were  advised  to 
sell  their  house,  pay  their  debts,  and  to  be  as  virtuous 
and  devout  as  were  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal. 

Madame  de  Chateau- Renaud,  who  was  now  Abbess 
of  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  was  a  lady  of  good  family, 
perfectly  correct  as  to  her  religious  life,  but  in  no  wise 
an  austere  or  very  devout  person.  She  now  felt  that 
she  might  take  possession  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs, 
and  having  consulted  the  Cardinal,  she  set  off  on 
October  ist,  1709,  accompanied  by  two  notaries  and 
some  of  her  nuns. 

She  was  received  with  perfect  politeness  by  the 
Prioress  (for  there  was  now  no  Abbess) ;  but  although 
poor  Mere  Anastasie  du  Mesnil  was  extremely  courteous, 
nothing  would  induce  her  to  assemble  the  community 
and  receive  Madame  de  Chateau- Renaud  as  Abbess. 
It  was  the  last  feeble  flutter  of  defiance.  There  were 
the  usual  formalities,  and  pleadings  and  protests,  and 
Madame  Chateau- Renaud  retired,  saying  that  she  was 
deeply  grieved  to  see  that  these  nuns  were  bent  on 
ruining  themselves. 

Madame  de  Chateau- Renaud  took  formal  possession 
of  the  Abbey  and  the  church,  but  was  unable  to  toll 
the  bell,  as  a  servant  of  the  monastery  had  cut  the 
rope. 

"  That  was  the  only  token  of  impatience  I  remarked 
in  the  whole  business,"  wrote  the  Abbess,  "everything 
else  passed  off  in  the  most  remarkable  gentleness,  and 
in  perfect  silence.  It  makes  me  feel  certain  that  if  these 


472  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  PORT  ROYAL 

nuns  would  only  submit,  they  are  perfectly  fit  to  edify 
the  Church  exceedingly." 

Madame  de  Chateau- Renaud  then  left  Port  Royal 
and  drove  to  Saint  Cyr,  where  was  Madame  de 
Maintenon,  to  whom  a  full  account  of  the  proceedings 
was  duly  given. 

One  little  sneer  escaped  these  great  ladies.  Madame 
de  Maintenon  asked  the  Abbess  if  she  had  perceived 
that  peculiar  atmosphere  which  was  said  to  pervade 
Port  Royal,  to  which  Madame  de  Chateau- Renaud 
replied  that  she  was  not  good  enough  for  that  sort  of 
thing,  and  therefore  she  had  not  noticed  it. 

Madame  de  Chateau- Renaud  received  an  order  of 
the  Council  on  the  igth  October  1708  commanding 
the  Prioress  and  nuns  of  Port  Royal  des  Champs  to 
receive  the  Abbess  of  Port  Royal  de  Paris  and  to  give 
up  everything  to  her.  Every  appeal,  every  legal  device 
had  failed ;  now  the  community  could  only  wait  in 
patience  for  their  final  agony.  It  was  not  long  delayed. 

The  new  confessor  of  the  king,  Pere  Tellier,  was  a 
far  more  implacable  enemy  than  ever  Pere  La  Chaise 
had  been  ;x  he  urged  the  king  to  finish.  "  Madame  de 
Chateau- Renaud  would  never  be  suffered  to  effect  a 
peaceable  entrance,"  said  he.  "  Unless  the  king  would 
give  precise  orders  for  the  dispersion  of  the  nuns,  the 
desired  end  would  never  be  attained." 

And  the  long-desired  decree  was  granted,  and  the 
enemies  of  Port  Royal  at  last  triumphed. 

A  fresh  order  in  Council  was  made,  to  this  effect, 
"that  the  king,  on  account  of  various  considerations 
affecting  the  good  of  his  service  and  the  tranquillity  of 
his  kingdom,  had  resolved  to  disperse  into  various 
places  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal."  l<Thus,"  says  Dom 
Clemencet,  "are  the  best  Princes  deceived!"  But 
Louis  XIV.  did  not  sin  in  ignorance ;  it  is  possible  that 
he  did  feel  some  lingering  reluctance  for  the  work  of 
brutality  on  a  handful  of  elderly,  and  in  some  cases, 
of  dying  women.  M.  dArgenson,  an  official  of  police, 

1  Pere  La  Chaise  died  in  January  1709.      St  Simon  gives  a  terrible 
picture  of  his  successor.     See  Appendix,  Note  XII. 


THE  LAST  DISPERSION  473 

was  ordered  to  proceed  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs. 
He  bore  with  him  a  certain  number  of  letters  addressed 
to  the  heads  of  various  convents,  and  written  in  these 
terms : — 

"  Dearly  beloved, — Having  given  orders  that  .  .  . 
(such  and  such  a  Sister)  .  .  .  should  be  consigned  to 
your  monastery,  we  order  you  to  receive  her,  and  to 
retain  her  until  further  orders ;  we  notify  you  that  a 
pension  for  her  will  be  regularly  paid.  See  that  you 
fail  not  in  this.  Such  is  our  pleasure." 

M.  de  Pontchartrain,  the  son  of  the  then  Chancellor, 
also  wrote  to  each  of  the  selected  Convents  to  give 
notice  of  the  arrival  of  the  guests.  In  these  letters  he 
directed  that  the  nuns  were  to  be  treated  kindly, 
but  that  they  must  be  allowed  no  intercourse  with  any- 
one outside  the  convent  in  which  they  were  imprisoned. 

The  Bishops  of  the  different  dioceses  into  which  the 
nuns  were  sent  also  each  received  a  letter  which  gave 
precise  details  as  to  how  the  poor  women  were  to  be 
guarded. 

It  seems  incredible  that  Louis  should  have  taken  the 
trouble  to  enter  into  such  details. 

M.  d'Argenson  set  out  on  the  24th  October.  In  the 
early  morning  of  that  day,  when  the  community,  after 
saying  Matins,  returned  to  their  dormitories,  they  found 
that  their  lamps  had  gone  out. 

Later  on,  a  peasant  came  to  the  Prioress  and  told  her 
that  a  file  of  carriages  was  approaching,  and  all  around 
were  Archers  of  the  Guard.  M.  dArgenson  entered 
the  monastery  on  foot,  and  having  posted  a  sentinel, 
proceeded  to  the  parlour  and  read  the  order  to  the 
Prioress,  who  had  been  summoned.  The  doors  were 
to  be  opened,  every  paper  was  to  be  given  up. 

The  Prioress  replied  that  she  and  all  would  obey, 
and  M.  d'Argenson  was  admitted. 

He  went  to  the  chapter-house,  and  was  met  by  the 
Prioress  and  two  nuns  next  in  authority  to  her.  He 
then  went  with  these  poor  nuns  to  examine  the  archives 
and  the  books  and  title-deeds  of  the  monastery.  While 


474  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

this  was  going-  on  the  bell  sounded  for  Terce,  and  for 
the  very  last  time  Mere  Angelique's  spiritual  children 
assembled  together  and  sang  that  lovely  Office,  not  one 
of  them  knowing-  what  was  about  to  happen. 

Psalm  xxiv.  (in  our  version  xxv.)  was  usually  sung 
by  them  on  Tuesdays  at  Terce,  and  it  was  appropriate : 
"  Ad  te  levavi  animam  meam."  After  Terce  the  whole 
community  were  summoned  to  the  chapter-house,  and 
when  the  twenty-two  Sisters  were  assembled,  M. 
d'Argenson  read  aloud  the  Order. 

It  seems  to  have  been  received  in  silence ;  nearly 
fifty  years  had  passed  since  the  days  of  M.  de  Per^fixe, 
when  young  and  excitable  women  burst  into  sobs  and 
tears.  Now  the  few  who  remembered  those  evil  days 
were  very  old,  and  all  sat  silent  and  still  under  the  hand 
of  God. 

The  Prioress  remonstrated  gently  against  the  re- 
moval from  the  diocese  of  Paris,  and  ventured  to  point 
out  that  it  would  have  been  more  merciful  to  send  them 
in  parties  of  two  at  least.  With  some  difficulty  they 
were  allowed  a  few  minutes  to  go  to  their  cells  and  pack 
up  some  necessaries. 

Meanwhile,  outside  the  monastery  the  country  people 
were  waiting  the  departure  of  the  nuns ;  for  daily 
distribution  of  food  had  been  made  to  them.  When 
one  remembers  the  awful  poverty  and  misery  of  the 
French  peasant  in  these  later  years  of  Louis's  reign,  one 
cannot  wonder  that  the  peasants  wept  and  mourned. 

The  nuns  reappeared,  all  but  one  poor  paralyzed 
Sister,  Euphrasie  Robert ;  and  then  the  Prioress 
ventured  to  remind  M.  dArgenson  that  no  Sister  had 
yet  broken  her  fast ;  but  as  he  would  not  allow  the  lay 
Sisters  to  go  and  fetch  some  provisions,  only  a  very 
little  bread  and  wine  were  brought.  M.  d'Argenson 
would  suffer  no  delay,  and  began  to  read  the  list.  The 
Prioress,  who  possessed  great  commonsense  and  dignity, 
ventured  to  beg  that  those  who  were  very  ill  might  be 
sent  to  the  nearer  convents. 

Then  came  the  awful  moment  of  saying  good-bye. 
One  by  one  the  Sisters  implored  forgiveness  of  the 


THE  FINAL  FAEEWELL  475 

rest;  for    any    fault,    and    farewells    were    said.      M. 
dArgenson  almost  broke  down. 

The  nuns  were  obliged  to  show  him  their  bundles ; 
poor  things,  they  had  been  so  hurried  and  confused, 
that  their  trembling  hands  could  hardly  collect  the  few 
necessaries  they  wished  to  take,  and  two  of  them 
fell  ill. 

However,  they  were  ready ;  and  each  knelt  for  the 
last  time  in  the  Chapel  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament ; 
once  again  each  offered  herself  to  God  in  union  with 
our  Lord,  and  the  final  farewells  were  said.  The  nuns 
in  the  last  moments  were  perfectly  quiet.  The  Prioress 
gave  M.  dArgenson  an  account  of  what  was  owing  to 
the  servants,  and  spoke  to  him  of  a  helpless  woman  who 
had  been  in  the  service  of  the  house  for  fifty  years.  At 
last  the  carriages  began  to  move  away,  and  the  nuns 
were  removed.  One  old  Sister  of  eighty-one,  who  was 
sent  to  Amiens,  died  on  the  8th  November. 

As  for  the  unfortunate  paralysed  Sister,  she  was  left 
alone  for  a  whole  day,  and  was  then  taken  to  Mantes, 
where  she  was  kindly  treated  as  to  her  physical  wants. 
But  the  Mother  of  the  convent  had  actually  to  tease 
and  torment  the  poor  woman,  who  was  eighty-six,  to 
sign  a  retractation  of  her  errors.  Whether  the  Sister 
did  so  or  not  is  unimportant. 

Yet  no  one  was  cruel.  M.  dArgenson  seems  really 
to  have  tried  to  be  kind  to  the  nuns,  and  to  have  gone 
to  each  carriage  as  it  set  out,  to  see  if  the  occupants 
were  fairly  comfortable.  The  Sisters  of  the  various 
convents  do  not  seem  to  have  been  anything  but  good. 
It  is  not  needful  to  follow  the  histories  of  each  of  the 
Sisters.  All  were  forced  to  sign  save  two :  these  were 
the  brave,  upright,  dignified  Prioress,  who  showed 
herself,  as  Sainte  Beuve  says,  a  worthy  daughter  of  the 
Mere  du  Fargis  and  of  Angelique  de  Saint  Jean ;  and 
the  Sister  Gertrude  du  Valois.  The  Prioress  was  sent 
to  Blois  and  remained  seven  years  in  the  convent  of  the 
Ursulines  there,  and  at  the  time  of  her  death  an  order 
had  arrived  to  set  her  free.  For  Louis  XIV.  was  dead, 
and  it  was  hoped  that  many  prisoners  might  be  released 


476  FINAL  DESTRUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 


vain  hope,  so  far  as  Port  Royal  was  concerned. 
It  seems  that  a  sister  of  the  Mere  du  Mesnil  had 
used  influence  for  her. 

The  Sister  Gertrude  du  Valois,  a  special  child  of 
the  Mere  Ang^lique  de  St  Jean,  is  an  interesting 
person.  She  was  banished  to  Chartres,  and  much 
loved  by  all  the  community  with  whom  she  was  placed 
but  she  seems  to  have  suffered  a  good  deal,  especially 
as  regarded  the  deprivation  of  the  Eucharist.  She 
wrote  some  beautiful  words  about  this,  quite  in  the 
manner  of  the  true  Port  Royalists.  The  widow  of 
the  Prince  du  Cond6  exerted  herself  on  the  Sister's 
behalf,  and  at  last,  in  1716,  she  was  taken  to  another 
convent  and  restored  to  full  Communion.  She  died  in 
1722,  and  her  last  years  were  cheered  by  letters  from 
the  Pere  Quesnel. 

But  let  us  return  to  Port  Royal.  M.  d'Argenson 
stayed  two  days  longer,  dismissing  the  servants,1  and 
searching  their  bundles  to  see  if  any  papers  were 
concealed.  For  there  was  a  general  idea  that,  if  only 
the  search  was  continued  long  enough  and  diligently 
enough,  incriminating  papers  would  be  found,  and  a 
conspiracy  against  Church  and  State  would  be  dis- 
covered and  exposed,  and  all  these  abominable  brutalities 
would  be  fully  justified. 

M.  d'Argenson  carried  off  quantities  of  books  and 
papers,  and  gave  the  king  a  full  account  of  his  doings. 

But  still  the  buildings  of  Port  Royal  remained.  What 
was  to  be  done  with  them  ? 

The  Cardinal  wished  to  send  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal 
de  Paris  to  Port  Royal  des  Champs,  but  this  did  not  suit 
any  of  the  Sisters,  though  the  Abbess  made  an  expedi- 
tion to  the  deserted  house,  and  carried  off  quantities  of 
books  and  furniture.  It  was  well  known  that  the  friends 
of  Port  Royal  hoped  against  hope  that  the  faithful  might 
be  restored  to  their  home.  Some  prints  had  been 
published  representing  the  buildings  of  Port  Royal  des 
Champs  ;  these  were  seized. 

And  before  long  an  order  was  given  in  Council  that 
1  See  Appendix,  Note  XIII. 


THE  VIOLATION  OF  THE  DEAD      477 

the  whole  place  was  to  be  demolished.  The  Marquis 
de  Pomponne  (son  of  the  minister)  took  alarm.  He 
petitioned  the  king  to  allow  him  to  remove  the  bodies 
of  his  relations,  "  who  had  the  misfortune  to  be  buried  in 
a  place  which  had  fallen  under  the  displeasure  of  his 
majesty!"  The  historian  (Dom  Clemencet)  not  un- 
naturally regards  this  petition  as  unworthy  of  an 
Arnauld,  and  yet  we  can  hardly  blame  him. 

Permission  was  given,  and  the  bodies  of  all  the 
Arnaulds  who  lay  at  Port  Royal  were  removed,  nine  in 
all,  and  the  three  caskets  which  contained  the  hearts  of 
the  Mere  Angelique  and  of  M.  Arnauld,  and  of  one  of 
M.  de  Pomponne's  daughters.  They  were  all  buried  in 
the  Chapel  of  an  estate  belonging  to  the  Marquis. 
Other  bodies  were  removed,  but  some  were  doubtless 
left  underneath  the  ruins.  Racine  was  laid  in  the 
Church  of  St  Etienne  du  Mont  near  Pascal.  Some  of 
the  bodies  were  buried  at  the  Parish  Church  of  Magny, 
others  in  one  deep  pit  in  the  cemetery  of  St  Lambert. 
But  the  most  revolting  details  are  given  of  the  way  in 
which  the  removal  of  the  unclaimed  bodies  was  per- 
formed. This  is  too  horrible  to  describe.  Nothing 
could  exceed  the  indecency  and  horror  of  these  last 
scenes.  Sainte  Beuve  appropriately  reminds  us  of  the 
profanation  of  the  royal  tombs  at  Saint  Denis  in  1793. 

And  Port  Royal  at  last  lay  under  the  feet  of  its 
enemies.  They  had  cried  :  "  Down  with  it,  down  with 
it,  even  to  the  ground,"  and  they  had  their  will. 

Louis  XIV.  had  been  able  to  accomplish  his  desire. 
In  the  seven  years  of  misery  and  disaster,  before  his 
long  reign  ceased,  did  he  ever  think  of  the  innocent 
whom  he  had  persecuted,  of  the  blood  which  he  had 
caused  to  be  poured  out  ? 

As  for  the  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  he  was  over- 
whelmed by  the  horrors,  so  far  exceeding  anything  he 
had  feared.  His  health  gave  way,  and  he  seems  to  have 
enjoyed  no  peace  to  the  end  of  his  life.  He  once  made 
a  pilgrimage  to  Port  Royal,  and  knelt  there  in  bitter 
anguish.1 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  XIV. 


478  FINAL  DESTEUCTION  OF  POET  EOYAL 

'The  rest  is  silence." 

For  it  does  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  this  book  to 
pursue  the  fortunes  of  the  later  Jansenists,  and  Pere 
Quesnel,  and  Pere  du  Guet ;  these  friends  of  Antoine 
Arnauld  are  not  of  Port  Royal. 

The  story  of  Port  Royal  ends  with  this  most  revolting 
destruction  of  the  material  buildings,  and  with  the  crush- 
ing out  of  a  great  spiritual  movement.  For  all  those 
whose  names  we  love — Mere  Angelique,  Mere  Agn£s ; 
for  all  the  Arnaulds  ;  for  St  Cyran  and  Pascal ;  for  the 
gentle,  tender  Du  Foss£,  Fontaine,  and  Lancelot ;  for 
the  well-beloved  physician  Hamon ;  for  the  single- 
hearted  and  devoted  confessors  and  directors,  Singlin, 
Sainte  Marthe,  Le  Tourneux,  and  so  many  others  ;  for 
the  brave  and  simple-hearted  men  who  gave  up  all  that 
makes  life  seemingly  attractive,  to  devote  themselves  to 
prayer  and  penitence ;  for  the  historian  and  the  poet ;  for 
the  women  who  risked  favour  in  high  places,  and  who 
found  pardon  and  peace  through  the  medium  of  Port 
Royal ;  for  those  whose  names  we  forget,  holy  nuns, 
devoted  servants  ;  for  all  these  we  give  thanks  to  God. 
For  these  all  go  to  the  making  up  of  that  Temple  whose 
builder  and  maker  is  God.  Not  one  tear,  or  privation, 
or  suffering  is  lost. 

But  the  story  is  a  great  warning. 

It  is  possible  to  crush  and  to  destroy  that  which  was 
meant  in  the  mind  of  God  to  be  a  power  for  good  in  the 
Church.  And  it  is  possible,  on  the  other  hand,  for  holy 
and  noble  souls  to  make  mistakes  and  to  be  overmuch 
occupied  in  attention  to  one  aspect  of  truth,  to  forget 
that  the  whole  is  greater  than  the  part,  and  that  the 
whole  body  must  be  "fitly  framed  and  knit  together 
through  that  which  every  joint  supplieth,"  if  the  body  is 
to  be  built  up  in  love. 

There  is  nothing  which  we  more  neglect  than 
the  teachings  of  history ;  there  is  nothing  which 
will  at  once  so  cheer  and  so  warn  us  as  those 
teachings. 

In  a  book,  the  value  of  which  is  out  of  all  proportion 
to  its  size,  an  eminent  professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History 


THE  LAST  BEATITUDE  479 

has  told  us  how  to  use  these  teachings.1  The  diverging 
tendencies  of  spiritual  thought  alike  "spring  from  the 
teaching  of  our  Lord  Himself.  They  are  not  antagon- 
istic ;  but  complementary,  they  are  both  necessary  to  the 
Church." 

When  shall  we  learn  this  lesson,  when  will  those  who 
keep  the  Christian  Creed  whole  and  undefiled  recognise 
that  there  always  must  be  divergencies  ?  The  Puritan, 
the  Catholic,  or,  as  it  is  so  well  put  in  Dr  Bigg's  book, 
the  Mystic  and  the  Disciplinarian,  will  always  be  found 
side  by  side  in  the  Catholic  Church. 

The  story  of  Port  Royal  is  the  story  of  these  diver- 
gencies in  thought — Jesuit  and  Port  Royalist  represented 
two  tendencies.  The  seventeenth  century  was  not  ripe 
for  toleration.  Port  Royal  was  crushed,  and  crushed 
because  it  stood  for  what  was  unworldly  as  against  the 
worldly  world. 

"  But  the  souls  of  the  righteous  are  in  the  Hand  of 
God.  .  .  .  God  made  trial  of  them,  and  found  them 
worthy  of  Himself.  As  gold  in  the  furnace  He  proved 
them,  and  as  a  whole  burnt  offering  He  accepted 
them." 

"  Blessed  are  they  that  have  been  persecuted  for 
righteousness'  sake :  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven." 

1  Unity  in  Diversity^  by  Dr  Bigg. 


NOTES 


NOTE  I.— ON  AUGUSTINUS  (p.  99) 

When  the  Bull  of  Urban  VIII.  against  the  book  was  published  in 
1643,  t^ie  University  of  Louvain  issued  a  letter  to  the  University  of  Paris, 
in  which  it  is  said  : — 

**  Quoi  faudra-t-il  done  que  la  doctrine  utile  de  St  Augustin,  qui  a 
soutenu  autrefois  tant  de  combats  et  remporte  tant  de  victoires,  succombe 
enfin  et  soit  accable'e.  ...  A  Dieu  ne  plaise  que  1'heritage  du  Verbe, 
incarne*  et  le  patrimonie  de  Jesus  crucifie  soit  ainsi  profane  et  dissipe. 


NOTE  II. — ON  "LA  FREQUENTE  COMMUNION"  (p.  184) 

Seventeen  Bishops  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Pope  in  favour  of  Antoine 
Arnauld's  book,  in  which  they  speak  of  the  results  the  book  may  have 
in  checking  laxity  in  moral  questions.  They  go  on  to  say  : — 

"  Non  seulement,  il  ne  combat  pas  la  participation  tres  frequente  de  la 
Sainte  Eucharistie,  mais  il  y  exhorte  les  fideles,  et  n'en  reprend  que  la 
mauvaise  usage  ;  il  soutient  qu'on  peut  differer  quelquefois  Pabsolution, 
mais  non  pas  qu'on  doive  la  differer  toujours  ;  il  enseigne  qu'elle  ne 
declare  pas  seulement  que  le  peche  est  remis,  mais  qu'elle  opere  aussi 
la  remission  du  peche  et  qu'elle  confere  la  Grace." 

And  they  go  on  to  say  that  this  teaching  is  the  teaching  of  the  Council 
of  Trent. 


NOTE  III.— THE  FRONDE  (p.  188) 

"  La  guerre  civile  fut  nommee  Fronde,  d'un  jeu  d'enfants  interdit  par 
la  police,  et  ce  fut  en  effet  un  jeu,  mais  abominable.  Un  moment,  il 
s'agit  d'une  reforme  de  1'Etat,  et  cette  reforme  etait  necessaire,  et  tres 
justes  e"taient  les  griefs  et  les  coleres  et  meme  les  fureurs  contre  le 
gouvernement  du  Cardinal,  mais,  tout  de  suite,  au  Parlement  qui  reclame 
la  reforme  et  se  charge  de  la  faire,  se  joignent  des  princes,  des  grands 

481  2    H 


482  NOTES 

seigneurs  et  leurs  clienteles,  dont  les  mobiles  sont  la  cupidit6  vulgaire, 
des  amours  presque  tous  frivoles,  des  humeurs,  des  caprices,  ou  seulement 
le  besoin  de  remuer." — ERNEST  LAVISSE,  Histoire  de  France,  tome  vii., 
p.  42. 


NOTE  IV.— OF  THE  CONTROVERSY  ON  GRACE  (p.  234) 

"  The  problem  of  the  existence  in  man  of  a  free  will,  at  once  real  and 
stringently  limited,  must  be  great  and  urgent ;  but  as  Pelagians  discussed 
it,  it  was  associated  with  a  virtually  naturalistic  idea  of  Redemption.  We 
must  also  remember  that  there  is,  in  reaction  from  Calvinism,  a  modern 
Pelagianism  which  regards  Christianity  simply  as  a  means  of  moral 
elevation,  and  the  doctrine  of  grace  as  a  bit  of  unverifiable  mysticism, 
and  takes  an  inadequate  measure  of  the  gravity  of  sin.  .  .  .  St  Augustine, 
in  spite  of  some  Augustinian  exaggerations,  stood  for  the  idea  of  grace, 
with  which  we  are  familiar  in  the  Collects,  as  the  very  life  of  God  freely 
given  to  man  in  Christ,  and  Pelagianism,  by  giving  inadequate  senses  to 
the  term,  lost  sight  of  the  truth  that  as  man  now  is,  he  needs  grace  both 
to  will  and  to  do  God's  will." — Church  Quarterly  Review,  July  1903. 


NOTE  V.— OF  PASCAL'S  "PROVINCIAL  LETTERS"  (p.  249) 

The  historian  Guette  says  that  he  has  read  the  attacks  on  Port  Royal  by 
the  Jesuits,  and  those  of  Port  Royal  on  the  Jesuits,  and  this  is  his  impres- 
sion :  that  the  Jesuits  treat  the  Port  Royalists  with  an  astonishing  anger 
and  injustice,  and  that  they  condescend  to  utter  petty  and  coarse  insults  ; 
in  Port  Royal  polemics  there  may  be  some  rather  angry  words  and 
some  indignant  passages,  but  in  general  the  tone  is  dignified,  and 
worthy  of  the  subject.  Pascal  is  the  one  who  has  attacked  them  most 
vehemently,  but  if  his  "  Provinciates  "  are  compared  to  the  libels  of  Pere 
Garasse,  it  can  be  seen  if  the  Jesuits  have  any  right  to  complain  of  the 
insults  of  Port  Royal. 


NOTE  V«.  (p.  249) 

Madame  de  Motteville  says  (Memoires,  vol.  iv.,  p.  105):  "Les  peres 
Jesuites  portent  a  juste  titre  le  nom  d'apotres  des  Indes  et  de  la  Chine, 
puisqu'au  prix  de  leur  vie  et  de  leur  sang  ils  ont  eu  Phonneur,  par  tant 
de  souffrances,  de  faire  adorer  le  nom  de  Jesus  Christ  presque  dans  toute 
1'etendue  de  la  terre,  et  particulierement  dans  les  contrees  barbares  ou  il 
n'etait  point  connu  auparavant.  C'est  une  compagnie  qui  a  toujours  ete 
remplie  de  grands  hommes,  tant  par  leur  science,  que  par  leur  piete,  qui 
les  a  fait  considerer  comme  des  colonnes  de  1'Eglise  ;  mais  plusieurs  des 
plus  grands  eveques  de  France  et  des  plus  estimes  etoient  les  chefs  de 
ceux  qu'ils  accusaient  djhere"sie. 


NOTES  483 

"  Un  de  leurs  peres,  plein  de  vertu,  et  des  plus  renommes  de  notre 
siecle,  parlant  un  jour  a  une  dame  de  mes  amies  des  contestations  de  ce 
temps  la,  qui  etaient  nees  et  fomentees  entre  les  jansenistes  et  eux,  il  dit, 
sans  blamer  les  adversaires  de  sa  compagnie,  et  avec  un  sentiment 
extreme  de  douleur  qui  lui  faisait  souhaiter  ardemment  Punion  de  tous 
les  Chretiens,  que  1'orgueil  de  1'esprit  humain  etoit  la  source  de  ces 
desordres,  et  qu'il  prioit  sans  cesse  Notre-Seigneur  de  tuer  en  lui  et  dans 
les  autres  cet  ennemi  mortel  de  ceux  qui  aspirent  a  la  vie  eternelle.  Ce 
saint  homme  avoit  raison  d'en  parler  de  cette  maniere  ;  car  j'ai  toujours 
oui  dire  que  ces  contestations  de  doctrine  avoient  ete  causers  par  des 
animosites  particulieres." 


NOTE  VI.— MAlTRES  DES   REQUETES  (p.   258) 

Note. — So  many  friends  of  Port  Royal  were  "  Maitres  des  Requetes," 
that  the  following  quotation  may  be  interesting  : — 

"  Les  maitres  des  requetes  etaient  des  personnages  importants.  On 
les  trouve  partout — au  tribunal  des  *  Requetes  de  1'hotel,'  ou  etaient  jugees 
les  causes  des  officiers  de  la  Couronne,  des  commensaux  du  Roi,  et  de 
toutes  personnes  qui  avaient  obtenu  le  privilege  de  cette  jurisdiction 
speciale ;  au  Parlement  et  au  Grand  Conseil ;  chez  le  Chancelier,  ou 
ils  rapportaient  sur  les  lettres  a  sceller  ;  mais  leur  principal  domicile  etait 
le  Conseil  des  parties.  II  y  etudaient,  pour  les  presenter,  les  affaires 
sans  nombre  comprises  dans  cette  competence  sans  limites. 

"  De  plus,  on  les  envoyait  dans  les  provinces  faire  des  enquetes.  En 
1663-1664  des  maitres  dresseront  pour  Colbert  un  etat  du  Royaume. 

"  Un  maitre  des  requetes  etait  toujours  en  travail  pour  sortir  de  sa 
condition,  qui  n'etait  qu'un  passage.  *  Un  abbe  qui  viellit '  disait  Saint 
Simon,  'un  maitre  des  requetes  demeure,  un  vieux  page,  une  fille 
ancienne,  deviennent  de  tristes  personnages. 

"  Le  maitre  des  requetes  aspirait  a  une  intendance  et  au  brevet  de 
conseiller  d'Etat." — ERNEST  LAVISSE,  Histoire  de  France,  tome  septieme, 
P-I53- 

NOTE  VII.  (p.  432) 

St  Simon  says  : — 

"  Harlai,  Archeveque  de  Paris,  ne  avec  tous  les  talents  du  corps  et  de 
1'esprit,  et  s'il  n'avait  eu  que  les  derniers,  le  plus  grand  prelat  de  PEglise, 
devoit  s'etre  fait  tout  ce  qu'il  etoit ;  mais  de  tels  talents  poussent  toujours 
leur  homme,  et  quand  les  mceurs  n'y  repondent  pas,  ils  ne  font  qu'aigrir 
1'ambition  ;  sa  faveur  et  sa  capacite  le  faisoient  aspirer  au  ministere,  les 
affaires  du  Clerge,  d'une  part,  et  du  roi,  de  1'autre,  avec  Rome,  lui  en 
avoient  donne  des  esperances  ;  il  comptoit  que  les  Sceaux  1'y  porteroient 
et  combleroient  son  autorite  en  attendant ;  c'eut  ete  un  grand  Chancelier  ; 
il  ne  pouvoit  etre  mediocre  en  rien,  et  cela  meme  etoit  redoute  par  le  roi 
pour  son  Cabinet,  et  encore  plus  par  ses  ministres." 


484  NOTES 


NOTE  VIII.— THE  AFFAIRE  OF  THE  REGALE  (p.  439) 

The  King  of  France  had  always  claimed  the  right  of  seizing  the 
revenues  of  vacant  Bishoprics,  and  the  patronage  of  benefices  in  the 
diocese  during  the  time  of  the  vacancy  (droit  du  regale).  But  the 
dioceses  of  the  south  of  France  were  exempt  from  this.  In  1673  the 
"regale"  was  made  universal  in  France,  and  all  the  southern  Bishops 
submitted  except  the  Bishops  of  Alet  and  Pamiers. 

Pope  Innocent  XI.  took  the  side  of  the  Bishops,  and  fulminated 
against  Louis  XIV.  And  by  a  strange  reversal  of  the  usual  order  of 
affairs,  the  Jesuits  were  on  the  side  of  the  King,  and  the  Port  Royalists 
or  Jansenists  on  the  Papal  side.  This  did  not  tend  to  make  Louis  more 
favourable  to  Port  Royal.  He  grew  more  and  more  convinced  that  Port 
Royal  was  against  him. 

The  strained  relations  between  Louis  and  the  Holy  See  lasted  until 
1693,  when  "PEglise  de  France  rentra  dans  une  situation  normale."1 


NOTE  IX.  (p.  459) 

L'Abb6  Guette  says,  in  his  Histoire  de  VEglise  de  France : — 
"Si  Ton  examine  les  grandes  ceuvres  que  1'ecole  de  Port  Royal 
produites,  on  sera  convaincu  qu'elle  n'entra  dans  les  luttes  sur  la  Grace 
que  pour  r^pondre  aux  provocations  de  ses  adversaires  et  qu'elle  avait 
dans  ses  travaux  un  but  plus  eleve  qu'elle  poursuivait  avec  autant  de 
science  que  d'energie,  des  qu'on  lui  laissait  quelque  repos.  Les  Objections 
d^Arnauld  contre  Descartes;  la  Perpetuitc  de  la  Foi;  les  Pensees  de 
Pascal;  les  Principes  de  la  Foi  Chretienne,  et  tant  d'autres  livres  moins 
celebres,  dans  lesquels  sont  etablies  les  verites  fondamentales  du 
Christianisme,  attestent  que  1'ecole  de  Port  Royal  avait  entrepris  la 
guerre  la  plus  active  contra  le  rationalisme  qui  menac,ait  d'envahir  la 
societe  depuis  le  XVI.  Siecle." 


NOTE  X.— ON  M.  DE  TILLEMONT  (p.  464) 

A  writer  in  the  Church  Quarterly,  July  1903,  points  out  that  Dr  Bright 
(the  eminent  professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the  University  of 
Oxford,  1868-1901)  often  referred  to  Tillemont,  and  the  writer  adds  : — 

"  Tillemont's  critical  notes  are,  as  has  been  said,  remarkably  judicious, 
clear  and  exact ;  the  work  is  done  with  such  minuteness  and  care,  that 
nothing  is  passed  over,  and  if  we  are  told  in  the  words  of  a  modern 
religious  encyclopaedia  that  the  labours  of  Louis  Sebastien  le  Nain  de 
Tillemont  do  not  satisfy  the  present  generation  of  scholarship,  we  must 
take  leave  to  doubt  whether  contemporary  scholars  have  yet  done 
better." 

1  Martin,  Histoire  de  France,  p.  193. 


NOTES  485 


NOTE  XI.  (p.  469) 

About  the  bull,  St  Simon  says  : — 

"  Mais  ce  qui  surprit  etrangement,  c'est  que  les  religieuses  des  Champs 
se  mirent  en  regie  et  se  pourvurent  a  Rome,  ou  elles  furent  ecoutees. 
Comme  la  bulle  de  la  constitution  Vineam  Domini  Sabaoth  n'y  avait 
jamais  ete  accordee  pour  detruire  la  paix  de  Clement  IX.,  on  n'y  trouva 
point  mauvais  les  difficultes  de  ces  filles  a  la  signer  sans  1'explication 
qu'elles  oflfraient  d'ajouter  en  signant,  sans  prejudice  de  la  paix  de 
Clement  IX.,  a  laquelle  elles  adheroient.  Ce  qui  etoit  leur  crime  en 
France  digne  d'eradication  et  des  dernieres  peines  personelles  parut  fort 
innocents  a  Rome ;  elles  se  soumettaient  a  la  Bulle,  et  dans  le  m£me 
esprit  qu'elle  avait  ete  donnee  ;  on  n'y  en  vouloit  pas  davantage." 


NOTE  XII.  (p.  472)— SAINT  SIMON,  opinions 

"Le  Pere  de  la  Chaise  etoit  d'un  esprit  mediocre,  mais  d'un  bon 
caractere,  juste,  droit,  sense,  sage,  doux  et  modere,  fort  ennemi  de  la 
delation,  de  la  violence  et  des  eclats.  .  .  * 

"  II  ne  voulut  jamais  pousser  le  Port  Royal  des  Champs  jusqu'a  la 
destruction,  ni  entrer  en  rien  contre  le  Cardinal  de  Noailles,  quoique 
parvenu  a  tout  sans  sa  participation  ;  le  Cas  de  Conscience,  et  tout  ce  qui 
se  fit  contre  lui  de  son  temps,  se  fit  sans  la  sienne.  .  .  . 

"II  eut  toujours  sur  sa  table  le  Nouveau  Testament  du  Pere 
Quesnel.  .  .  ." 

Of  Pere  Tellier,  Saint  Simon  gives  a  terrible  portrait.  He  says  :  "  Sa 
vie  e"toit  dure,  par  gout  et  par  habitude  ;  il  ne  connaissoit  qu'un  travail 
et  sans  interruption  il  1'exigeoit  pareil  des  autres,  sans  aucun  egard  et  ne 
comprenoit  pas  qu'on  en  dut  avoir.  Sa  tete  et  sa  sante  etoient  de  fer,  sa 
conduite  en  etoit  aussi,  son  naturel  cruel  et  farouche.  Confit  dans  les 
maximes  et  dans  la  politique  de  la  Societe,  autant  que  la  durete  de  son 
caractere  s'y  pouvait  ployer,  il  e*toit  profondement  faux,  trompeur,  cache 
sous  mille  plis  et  replis.  .  .  .  C'etoit  un  homme  terrible,  qui  n'alloit  a 
rien  moms  qu'a  destruction.  .  .  ." 

Saint  Simon  adds  that  Pere  Tellier  was  "ignorant  a  surprendre, 
insolent,  impudent,  ne  connoissant  ni  monde,  ni  mesure,  ni  degres,  ni 
managements. 

"  Je  me  suis  etendu  sur  ce  nouveau  confesseur,  parce  que  de  lui  sont 
sorties  les  incroyables  tempetes  sous  lesquelles  1'Eglise,  1'Etat,  le  savoir, 
la  doctrine,  et  tant  de  gens  de  bien  de  toutes  les  sortes,  gemissent  encore 
aujourd'hui.  .  .  ." 

One  ceases  to  wonder,  after  reading  this,  that  Port  Royal  was  treated 
with  revolting  brutality. 

Saint  Simon  tells  a  curious  story,  that  Pere  la  Chaise  warned  the 
king  to  choose  a  Jesuit  confessor,  reminding  him  in  no  very  vague 
terms  of  the  fate  of  Henri  IV.—"  as  the  Society  contained  all  sorts  of 
people ! " 


486  NOTES 


NOTE  XIII.— THE  SERVANTS  OF  PORT  ROYAL  (p.  476) 

Port  Royal  was  in  especial  the  home  of  the  poor  ;  within  its  walls  was 
a  collection  of  poor  people,  servants,  shoemakers,  gardeners,  who  partook 
of  that  spirit  of  sober  piety,  lifelong  penitence,  and  devotion. 

The  Vie  Edifiante  des  Domestiques,  which  is  bound  up  in  the  Histoire 
Abrige'e  de  la  demure  Persecution^  tells  their  story. 

Pierre  Bouchier,  Leonard  Fourmier,  Etienne  Gaudron,  and  several 
others,  all  simple  unlearned  peasants,  who  had  been  attracted  to  Port 
Royal,  and  who  presevered  when  they  were  driven  away,  in  their  lives  of 
prayer  and  work,  all  seem  alike  possessed  by  the  love  for  the  New 
Testament,  the  true  cachet  of  Port  Royal. 

Pierre  Moliar,  who  had  been  a  gardener  at  Port  Royal,  in  his  will, 
after  giving  directions  for  his  funeral  and  for  the  saying  of  Masses  for  his 
soul,  and  after  some  legacies  to  the  poor,  expresses  a  wish  that  any 
money  that  is  left  should  be  expended  on  New  Testaments,  to  be 
distributed  freely  wherever  they  were  needed. 


NOTE  XIV.— CARDINAL  NOAILLES'S  GRIEF  AFTER  THE  DESTRUCTION 
OF  PORT  ROYAL  (p.  477) 

"  Le  Cardinal  de  Noailles,"  says  St  Simon,  "  en  sentit  Penormite  apres 
qu'il  se  fut  mis  hors  d'etat  de  parer  un  coup  qui  avoit  passe  sa  prevoyance 
et  qui  en  effet  ne  se  pouvoit  imaginer." 


INDEX 


ABBESS,   office  of,  made    elective 

and  triennial,  57 

Agnes,    Mere    (Jeanne    Catherine 
Agnes  Arnauld),  4  ;  dedicated  to 
,  the  Religious  Life,  5  ;  at  St  Cyr, 
6,  8  ;  at  Port  Royal,  22,  24  ;  her 
illness,  24,  124,  258,  410;  novi- 
tiate,   25  ;     character,    25,    266, 
410  ;  appointed  mistress  of  the 
novices,    25  ;    Prioress    of    Port 
Royal,   30 ;   installed  coadjutor- 
Abbess,  38,  45  ;  her  Chapelet  du 
Saint  Sacrement,  59  ;   sent  to  a 
convent    at    Tard,    59 ;    resigns 
office  of  coadjutor,  59;  outbreak 
against  Le  Chapelet  Secret,  62  ; 
return  to  Port  Royal,  74,  343  ; 
strained  relations  with  her  sister, 
74 ;  elected  Abbess,  75,  265  ;  on 
distraction   in   prayer,    167  ;    on 
the  dowry  of  Jacqueline  Pascal, 
213;  on  the  departure  of  Mdlle 
Roannez,    260 ;    compared   with 
her  sister  Angelique,  266 ;  char- 
acter of  her  letters,  266  ;  letters 
from  Mere  Angelique,  288  ;  re- 
monstrance to  Louis  XIV.,  292  ; 
on  the  result  of  the  Visitation, 
301  ;  agrees  to  sign  the  Formu- 
lary with  an   explanation,   302  ; 
her  rules  for  the  time  of  persecu- 
tion,   306 ;    removal   from    Port 
Royal,  324  ;  on  her  treatment  by 
the  nuns  of  the  Visitation,  332  ; 
her    vocation    of    prayer,    333 ; 
confession    in    regard    to    her 
signature,  345  ;  spirit  of  resigna- 
tion and  trust,  355  ;  death,  410  ; 
her  rules,  411  ;  literary  gift,  411  ; 
The  Picture  of  a  Perfect  and  of 
an  Imperfect  Religious,  411-413 
Aiguillon,  Duchess  d'  96,  206 

487 


Aire,  Bishop  of,  72 

Albret,  Mme  d',  her  correspon- 
dence with  Bossuet,  291  note 

Alengon,  M.  d',  confessor  to  Port 
Royal,  294 

Alet,  Bishop  of,  351  ;  refuses  to 
sign  the  Formulary,  368  ;  cham- 
pion of  the  rights  of  the  Episco- 
pate, 369 ;  his  influence  over 
the  Prince  de  Conti,  403 

Alexander  VII.,  Pope,  238 ;  his 
relations  with  Louis  XIV.,  305  ; 
Bull  condemning  the  Five  Pro- 
positions, 328  ;  publication  of  his 
second  Bull,  368  ;  death,  370 

Amiens,  475 

Andilly,  Agnes  Arnauld  d',  makes 
her  profession,  74 

Andilly,  M.  Robert  d',  2  ;  his  birth, 
4;  visit  to  Port  Royal,  16 ; 
position  at  Court,  17  ;  marriage, 
39 ;  friendship  with  M.  de  St 
Cyran,  48,  72,  87  ;  death  of  his 
wife,  77,  86 ;  the  patriarch  of 
Port  Royal,  144  ;  memoirs,  144  ; 
affection  for  his  family,  145  ; 
character,  145,  149,  416  ;  career, 
145  ;  obtains  the  post  of  Inten- 
dant  de  rArmee,  145  ;  popularity, 
145;  relations  with  his  eldest 
son,  146 ;  controversy  with  a 
lawyer,  148 ;  retires  to  Port 
Royal,  148  ;  his  work  in  the 
garden,  148  ;  literary  work,  148  ; 
illness,  302 ;  his  blessing  to  the 
Sisters,  316,  324  ;  his  friendship 
with  Mme  de  St  Ange,  352 ; 
reception  by  Louis  XIV.,  409  ; 
return  to  Port  Royal,  409  ;  death, 
416 

Ange,  Frere  Saint,  his  false  teach- 
ing, 208 


488 


INDEX 


Ange,  Madame  de  Saint,  152; 
examined  by  the  priests  at  the 
Visitation,  298  ;  death,  351,  354  ; 
character,  35 1 ;  her  life  of  devotion, 
352  ;  marriage,  352  ;  friendship 
with  M.  d'Andilly,  352 ;  enters 
Port  Royal,  353 ;  exiled  to  a 
convent  at  Chaillot,  353  ;  refusal 
to  sign  the  Formulary,  353 ;  ill- 
ness, 354 

Ange,  M.  de  St,  "premier  maitre 
d'Hotel,"  352 ;  marriage,  352  ; 
retires  from  court,  353  ;  death, 

Angelique,  Mere  (Jacqueline  Marie 
Arnauld),  her  birth,  4  ;  dedicated 
to  the  Religious  Life,  5  ;  coad- 
jutor, Abbess  of  Port  Royal,  6 ; 
removed  to  the  Abbey  of  Mau- 
buisson,  6  ;  confirmation,  6 ;  takes 
the  name  of  Angelique,  6 ;  her 
view  of  her  vows,  7  ;  Abbess  of 
Port  Royal,  8  ;  first  communion, 
8  ;  routine  of  life,  9  ;  illness,  10, 
51,  292,  300;  return  home,  10  ; 
ratification  of  her  vows,  1 1  ;  con- 
version, ii  ;  religious  struggles, 
11-13;  reforms,  13,  25,  32-34; 
wish  to  conform  to  the  rule  of 
seclusion,  14 ;  visit  from  her 
relations,  16-19  ;  reconciliation, 

19  ;  embraces  the  vow  of  poverty, 

20  ;  her  sisters,  22  ;  appointed  to 
reform  the  Abbey  of  Maubuisson, 
24,    30 ;    characteristics,    25-27, 
54,   267,   301 ;    arrival,   31  ;    re- 
ception    of    novices,     33 ;    her 
opinion  of  St  Francois  de  Sales, 
36,  39  ;  friendship  with  him,  37  ; 
conflict    with    Mme    D'Estrees, 
40 ;   expelled  from  Maubuisson, 
42 ;    arrival    at     Pontoise,    43  ; 
return  to  Maubuisson,  44  ;  death 
of  her  father,  45  ;  attack  of  small- 
pox,  46 ;  return  to  Port  Royal, 
46,   75  ;    friendship    with    Mere 
de    Chantal,    48 ;    reforms    the 
Abbey  of  Lys,  51  ;  experience  of 
a  refractory  nun,  52 ;  kindness 
to    the    poor,   52  ;    reasons    for 
wishing  to  move  to   Paris,  53- 
55  ;    the    removal,    55  ;    money 
difficulties,  55  ;  appoints  M.  de 
Langres  spiritual    director,   58 ; 
resigns  her  post,  59  ;  trials  and 
persecutions,      60  ;      nominated 


Superior  of  the  Institut  du  Saint 
Sacrement,  61  ;  her  confession  to 
M.  de  St  Cyran,  64 ;  set  of 
Resolutions,  64  ;  resignation,  67, 
226 ;  letters,  68-70,  169,  228  ; 
self- distrust,  70  ;  objection  to  ex- 
travagant devotions,  70  ;  in- 
structions to  the  novices,  76 ; 
on  the  retirement  of  her  nephews, 
89  ;  on  St  Cyran's  imprisonment 
104 ;  death  of  her  mother,  121  ; 
of  her  sister  Marie  Claire,  124 ; 
re-elected  Abbess,  125,  165,  199; 
return  to  Port  Royal  des 
Champs,  1 59,  228  ;  spirituality, 
159 ;  wisdom,  161  ;  dislike  of 
false  devotion,  161 ;  wise  counsels, 
162-165  ;  charity,  169  ;  letters  to 
the  Queen  of  Poland,  171,  228, 
251  ;  to  Antoine  Arnauld,  185- 
187  ;  on  the  sufferings  of  the 
peasantry,  191  ;  letters  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  196  ;  advice 
to  Jacqueline  Pascal,  215  ;  on 
the  death  of  her  sister  Anne 
Eugenie,  225  ;  on  the  persecu- 
tions, 251,  288  ;  on  the  depar- 
ture of  the  Solitaires,  251  ;  in- 
terrogated by  the  magistrate, 
253  ;  on  the  miracle  of  the  Holy 
Thorn,  255  ;  on  the  death  of  M. 
de  Bagnols,  259  ;  compared  with 
her  sister  Agnes,  266  ;  ill-health, 
288  ;  letter  to  Agnes,  288  ;  depar- 
ture for  Paris,  289  ;  receives 
Holy  Viaticum,  294,  300 ;  her 
fear  of  death,  295,  300 ;  death, 
301  ;  letters  to  Mme  de  Longue- 
ville,  385 ;  to  Mme  de  Sable, 
394-396 

Angers,  Henri,  Bishop  of,  his 
birth,  4 ;  letter  to  the  Pope  on 
the  propositions,  230  ;  letter  from 
Mere  Agnes,  301  ;  on  submission, 
309 ;  his  correspondence  on  the 
persecutions  of  Port  Royal,  329- 
332  ;  refuses  to  sign  the  Formu- 
lary, 368  ;  his  appeal  to  Louis 
XIV.,  431 

Annat,  Pere,  248,  304,  371 
Anne  Eugenie,  Sister,  298;  see  Ange 
Annunciation,  Convent  of  the,  333 
Ans,  M.  Ruth  d',  438  ;  at  Brussels, 

459 

ie  pour  les  Religieuses  du 
Port  Royal,  329,  368 


INDEX 


489 


Archange,  Pere,  at  Port  Royal,  21  ; 

his  common  sense,  22 
Argennes,  Mdlle  DJ,  147 
Argenson,  M.  d',  his  orders  to 

disperse  the  nuns  of  Port  Royal, 

472-475 

Armour,  M.  de  St,  230 

Arnauld,  Agnes,  4  ;  see  Agnes 

Arnauld,  Angelique,  4 \  see 
Angelique 

Arnauld,  Anne  Eugenie  (the  first), 
her  birth,  4 ;  illness,  42 ;  at 
Maubuisson,  42  ;  appointed 
Prioress  of  the  Abbey  of  Lys, 
50  ;  return  to  Port  Royal,  5 1 

Arnauld,  Anne  Eugenie  (the 
second),  her  vocation,  22  ;  enters 
Port  Royal,  23 ;  trials  of  her 
novitiate,  24  ;  her  great  joy,  24  ; 
mistress  of  the  pensionnaires, 
224 ;  death,  225 

Arnauld,  Antoine,  his  birth,  4  ;  La 
Frdquente  Communion,  112,  113, 
I35>  I7°)  17&  5  ms  conversion, 
120;  career,  121;  letter  to  M. 
de  St  Cyran,  122 ;  ordained 
priest,  124  ;  first  mass,  124  ;  con- 
fessor to  Port  Royal,  169 ;  his 
book  on  Logic,  175  ;  method, 
179  ;  views,  179-181  ;  retire- 
ment, 185  ;  letters  from  Mere 
Angelique,  185-187,  251  ;  his 
Apologia,  187  ;  La  Perpetuite  de 
la  Foi,  235  ;  letters  on  the  treat- 
ment of  M.  de  Liancourt,  237  ; 
censured,  238  ;  in  concealment, 
238,  243,  368  ;  his  help  in  pre- 
paring the  new  edition  of  the 
Penstes,  269  ;  obstinacy,  308  ; 
character  of  his  letters,  309  ;  his 
visit  to  the  Papal  Nuncio  and 
Louis  XIV.,  371  ;  funeral  oration 
on  Mere  Agnes,  410 ;  on  M. 
d'Andilly,  419  ;  defence  of  Nicole, 
419 ;  leaves  Port  Royal,  438 ; 
words  on  his  exile,  438  ;  retires 
to  Flanders,  439  ;  letter  to  the 
Archbishop  on  the  false  accusa- 
tions, 439  ;  letter  to  Louis  XIV., 
440 ;  at  Brussels,  459  ;  religious 
views,  459  ;  death,  459  ;  char- 
acter of  his  writings,  460 ; 
legacies,  461 

Arnauld,  Antoine  de  la  Mothe, 
Procureur  General,  I  ;  his  re- 
ligious views,  2 ;  escape  from 


the  Massacre  of  St  Bartholomew, 
2  ;  marriages,  2  ;  death,  2 

Arnauld,  Antoine  de  la  Mothe,  a  ; 
Procureur  General,  3  ;  his 
eloquence,  3 ;  wife,  3 ;  home- 
life,  4  ;  children,  4  ;  attack  on 
the  Jesuits,  4  ;  his  religious  views, 
10 ;  oppositon  to  his  daughter 
Angelique,  14  ;  visit  to  Port 
Royal,  16-19  ;  reconciliation,  19  ; 
death,  45 

Arnauld,  Catherine,  her  early 
marriage,  3  ;  children,  4  ;  visit 
to  Port  Royal,  16,  19  ;  rash  vow, 
19 ;  death  of  her  husband,  45  ; 
her  wish  to  become  a  Religious, 
53  ;  enters  the  novitiate,  59  ;  life 
at  Port  Royal,  of  piety  and 
austerity,  120;  death  of  her  son 
Simon,  120 ;  relations  with  her 
daughter  Angelique,  120 ;  death, 
121  ;  character,  121 

Arnauld,  Catherine,  her  birth,  4  ;  see 
Le  Maitre 

Arnauld,  Henri,  Bishop  of  Angers, 
4  ;  see  Angers 

Arnauld,  Isaac,  5,  90 ;  "  Intendant 
des  Finances,"  5 

Arnauld,  Jacqueline  Marie ;  see 
Angelique 

Arnauld,  Jeanne  Catherine  Agnes, 
her  birth,  4  ;  see  Agnes 

Arnauld,  Madeleine,  her  birth,  4 ; 
enters  Port  Royal,  49 ;  death, 

195 

Arnauld,  Marie  de  St  Claire,  her 
birth,  4  ;  at  Port  Royal,  22,  25  ; 
her  character,  25  ;  attacks  of 
fever  at  Maubuisson,  31  ;  sent 
to  a  convent  at  Tard,  59  ;  return 
to  Port  Royal,  74  ;  repentance 
towards  M.  de  St  Cyran,  77  j 
confession,  78 ;  penitence,  79 ; 
death,  80,  124 

Arnauld,  Pierre,  90  note ;  his  char- 
acteristics, 5  ;  death  at  the  siege 
of  La  Rochelle,  5 

Arnauld,  Simon,  his  birth,  4  ;  killed 
in  battle,  120 

Arras,  Bishop  of,  431 

Augustinian  party,  230 

Augustinusj  or,  the  Doctrine  of 
St  Augustine  on  the  Health, 
Sickness,  and  Medicine  of  the 
Soul,  99 ;  its  division,  99 ;  see 
Jansenius 

2  I 


490 


INDEX 


Aumone,  43 

Aumont,  Mme  da,  196,  225 

Austria,  Queen  Anne  of,  135,  185, 
189  ;  her  marriage,  23  ;  pleasure 
in  Jacqueline  Pascal,  205  ;  dis- 
like of  the  Port  Royalists,  250, 
256  ;  letter  from  Mere  Angelique, 
293  ;  visit  to  Port  Royal,  328 

Auvergne,  I 

BACHAUMONT,  188 

Bagnols,  Mdlle  de,  291 

Bagnols,  M.  du  Gue  de,  199 ;  his 
death,  258  ;  devoted  to  good 
works,  258  ;  burial,  259  ;  "  Pro- 
cureur  general  des  pauvres," 
259 

Bail,  M.,  appointed  Superior  of 
Port  Royal,  293  ;  appoints  con- 
fessors, 294 ;  discourse  to  the 
Sisters,  295  ;  visit  of  inspection, 
296  ;  examination  of  the  Sisters, 
296-300 ;  report,  302  ;  on  the 
death  of  Mme  de  St  Ange,  354 

Barcos,  M.  de,  at  the  Abbey  of  St 
Cyran,  103,  104,  262  ;  retires 
from  the  world,  185  ;  his  Treatise 
sur  la  Grandeur  de  VEglise  de 
Rome,  417  ;  death,  433 

Baronius,  Cardinal,  271 

Barthelemy,  Edouard  de,  Une  Niece 
de  Mazarin,  403  note 

Bartholomew,  St,  Massacre  of,  2 

Bascle,  M.  Etienne  de,  his  life  of 
misfortunes,  139  ;  joins  the 
Solitaires,  140  ;  cured  of  his 
lameness,  140 

Bazas,  Bishop  of,  150 

Beard,  Rev.  C.,  his  medical  explana- 
tion of  the  miracle  of  the  Holy 
Thorn,  255 

Beaupuis,  M.  Wallon  de,  150; 
Superior  or  Headmaster  of  Port 
Royal  school,  171,  253,  456  ;  his 
pupils,  171  ;  method  of  teaching, 
173  ;  his  birth,  456  ;  philosophical 
powers,  456  ;  takes  orders,  457  ; 
Superior  of  convents,  457  ;  de- 
prived of  all  his  occupations,  457  ; 
ascetic  life,  457 ;  visit  to  La 
Trappe,  458  ;  loss  of  his  friends, 
458  ;  death,  458 

Beau-Soleil,  Baronne  de,  at  Vin- 
cennes,  107 

Beauvais,  Bishop  of,  368 

Beauvilliers,  Due  de,  194 


Benoise,  Marie  Catherine  de  Sainte 

Celinie,  441 
Bernard,  Canon,  extract  from  The 

Central  Teaching  of  Jesus  Christ, 

233 

Bernard,  Pere,  12 

Bernieres,  M.  de,  142,  Maitre  des 
Requetes,  190  ;  his  school,  253  ; 
"  Procureur  general  des  pauvres," 
259  ;  forbidden  to  receive  chil- 
dren, 287 

Berulle,  Charles  Condren,  Cardinal 
de,  21,  73  ;  adviser  of  M.  de 
Langres,  57  ;  founds  the  Con- 
gregation of  the  Oratorians,  57 

Besoigne,  his  Histoire  de  Port 
Royal,  437 

Beuve,  M.  de  Sainte,  Histoire  de 
Port  Royal,  2,  5,  118  note,  120, 
124  note,  129,  138,  185  note,  311 
note,  312,  409,  420,  423  note,  428 
note,  454 ;  on  the  Journee  du 
Guichet,  16  ;  on  St  Francois  de 
Sales'  character,  35  ;  on  the 
religious  views  of  St  Cyran, 
88  ;  on  the  sensation  caused  by 
the  Frtquente  Communion,  179  ; 
on  the  Pascal  family,  202  ;  the 
character  of  Mme  de  Liancourt, 
236  ;  the  miracle  of  the  Holy 
Thorn,  255  ;  his  criticism  of 
Nicole,  312  ;  on  the  character 
of  Mme  de  Longueville,  391 

Bigg,  Dr,  Christian  Platonists,  99 
note;  Imitation  of  Christ,  103 
note;  Unity  in  Diversity,  232 
note,  472 

Bignon,  M.,  170 

Binet,  Pere,  53 

Bishops,  their  letter  to  Pope 
Clement  IX.,  370  ;  agree  to  sign 
the  Formulary,  371 

Boderie,  M.  de  la,  39,  145 

Boileau,  lives  from,  342  note;  on 
Le  Tourneux's  preachin  g,  446 

Bois  Dauphine,  Marquis  de,  394 

Bonneuil,  M.  de,  37 

Borel,  M.,  438 

Borroger,  Mme  de,  account  of  her 
marriage,  414 

Borroger,  M.  Le  Sieur  de,  his 
marriage,  413 

Bossuet,  Abbe,  333 ;  his  corre- 
spondence with  Mme  d'Albret, 
291  note;  his  criticism  on  the 
translation  of  the  Testaments, 


INDEX 


491 


365  ;  letter  from  M.  de  Tille- 
mont,  463 

Boucherat,  M.,  his  reform  of  the 
Abbey  of  Maubuisson,  29 ;  see 
Citeaux 

Bouchet,  406 

Boulard,  Elizabeth  de  Sainte  Anne, 
elected  last  Abbess  of  Port 
Royal,  467  ;  death,  469 

Boulehart,  Jeanne  de,  Abbess  of 
Port  Royal,  6  ;  her  death,  8 

Bourbon,  Anne  Genevieve  de, 
Duchesse  de  Longueville,  374  ; 
surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  of 
religion,  378  ;  entry  into  society, 
379  j  appearance,  379  ;  marriage, 
380 ;  see  Longueville 

Bourbon,  Constable  de,  I 

Bourbon,  Louis  de,  107 

Bourdoise,  M.  Adrian,  founder  of 
St  Nicholas  Community,  81 

Bourgeais,  M.,  438 

Bourzeis,  M.  de,  237 

Bouteillerie,  M.  de  la,  142,  207 

Bouteville,  Montmorency,  be- 
headed, 377 

Bouthillier,  M.,  72 

Boutroux,  M.,  218  ;  his  book  on 
Pascal,  240 

Bre"ge,  Mdlle  de,  380 

Bregy,  Soeur  Eustachie  de  St, 
removed  from  Port  Royal  de 
Paris,  327  ;  sent  to  the  Convent 
of  the  Ursulines,  339  ;  her  death, 

454 

Briquet,  Christine,  her  examina- 
tion by  the  priests,  298  ;  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  314,  315  ; 
her  characteristics,  317,  327,  339  ; 
removed  from  Port  Royal  de 
Paris,  327  ;  sent  to  the  Convent 
Sainte  Marie,  339  ;  her  meeting 
with  St  Jean  Angelique,  342  ; 
death,  455 

Brisacier,  Pere,  Jansenisme  con- 
fpndu,  22 5 

Brittany,  Anne  of,  399 

Broussel,  his  release,  189 

Brunschvicg,  M.,  269 

Butler,  Bishop,  his  arguments  on 
true  religion,  277 

Buzanval,  Nicholas  Choart  de, 
Bishop  of  Beauvais,  refuses  to 
sign  the  Formulary,  368 ;  con- 
fessor to  M.  de  Beaupuis,  457  ; 
death,  457 


CALLAGHAN,  M.  de,  226 
Cambout,     Sebastien     Joseph    de 

Coislin  du,  422  ;  see  Pontchateau 
Carmelite  Convent,  378 
Catholic  Church,  doctrine  of,  233 
Caulet,      Etienne     Frangois      de, 

Bishop   of   Pamiers,   refuses   to 

sign  the  Formulary,  368 
Chaillot,  Convent  of  the  Visitation 

at,  353 
Chaise,     Pere     La,    confessor    to 

Louis  XIV.,  472  j  his  death,  472 

note 

Chalons,  M.  de,  371 
Chamillard,    M.,    appointed    con- 
fessor to  Port  Royal,  316,  317  ; 

entreats  the  Sisters  to  sign  the 

Formula,  319 
Chammesson,  Anne  de  Jesus    de 

Foissy  de,  61  ;  her  confession  to 

M.  de  St  Cyran,  62,  66  ;  deprived 

of     the     mistress-ship     of     the 

novices,  66  ;   persecution  of  M. 

de  St  Cyran,  67 
Champagne,    Catherine    Suzanne, 

her  cure,  304 
Champagne,  Philip,  304 
Champvallon,  M.,  432  ;  see  Harlai 
Chantal,  Mere  de,  35  ;  establishes 

the  Order  of  the  Visitation,  38, 

68 ;    her  friendship   with    Mere 

Angelique,  48 
Chapelet     Secret,     Ley      outbreak 

against,  62  ;  views  on,  63 
Charles  V.,  King  of  Spain,  i 
Charles,  M.,  at  Port  Royal,  252, 

438 

Chartres,  417 
Chateau-neuf,    Isabel    Agnes    de, 

attacks  of  fever  at  Maubuisson, 

31  ;  death,  31 
Chateau-neuf,    M.    de,    appointed 

Secretary  of  State,  443 
Chateau-Renaud,  Mme  de,  Abbess 

of  Port   Royal,   de   Paris,   471  ; 

takes  possession  of  Port  Royal 

des  Champs,  471  ;  resistance  of 

the  nuns,  471 
Chatillon,  M.  de,  381 
Chaumes,   Abbe  de,  97  ;  his  rela- 
tions with  his  father,  146 
Chavigny,  Mme  de,  her  reception 

of  M.  de  St  Cyran,  128 
Chavigny,    M.     de,    Governor    of 

Vincennes,  106,  127 
Chesnai,  171,  253,  287 


492 


INDEX 


Chesne,  Marguerite  Agathe  du, 
her  refractoriness,  52 ;  escape 
from  Port  Royal,  52 

Chevreuse,  Due  de,  194  ;  his  char- 
acter, 194  note 

Chevreuse,  Duchesse  de,  193,  291 

Chigi,  Cardinal,  231 

Church,  Dean,  on  the  charge 
against  the  Jesuits,  241  ;  his 
sermon  on  Pascal,  278 

Church,  Peace  of  the,  negotiations, 
370;  concluded,  366,  371 

Ciron,  M.  de,  director  to  the  Prince 
de  Conti,  403 ;  banished  to 
Toulouse,  404 

Citeaux,  character  of  the  monks, 

54 

Citeaux,  Abbot  of,  9,  19,  54 ;  ap- 
pointed to  reform  the  Abbey  of 
Maubuisson,  29  ;  ejects  Mme 
D'Estrees,  30 

Claire,  Sceur  Fransoise  de  Ste, 
removed  from  Port  Royal,  339 

Claude,  M.,  Minister  of  the  Re- 
formed faith  at  Charenton,  421 

Clemencet,  Dom,  Histoire  de  Port 
Royal,  49,  64,  414,  477 

Clement  IX.,  Pope,  his  pacific  dis- 
position, 370 

Clement  XL,  Pope,  his  Bull 
Vineam  Domini  Sabaoth,  468  ; 
Bull  for  the  suppression  of  Port 
Royal,  470 

Cock,  Mrs,  her  life  of  Madame  de 
Longueville,  383 

Coislin,  Marquis  de,  422 

Colbert,  Minister  of  Finance,  291, 

3?9 

Coligny  killed  in  a  duel,  381 
Comblat,   Pere,  his  description  of 

Port  Royal,  415 

Comminges,  Bishop  of,  his  attempt 
to  effect  a  reconciliation  between 
the  opposing  parties,  308-310 
Conde,    Henri    II.    de     Bourbon, 
Prince   de,   374  ;   his  marriage, 
374 ;    return    from    exile,    376 ; 
imprisonment,  376 
Conde,  Louis,  Prince  of,  46  note 
Conde,    Prince    of,    23,    106 ;    his 

policy,  189 

Conde,  Princesse  de,  at  the  Con- 
vent of  the  Carmelites,  378 
Conde  family,  descent  of  the,  375 
Condren,  Charles  de,  Cardinal  de 
Berulle,  21  ;  his  character,  62 


Contes,    M.   de,    Dean    of    Notre 

Dame,  295 

Conti,  Armand  de  Bourbon,  Prince 
de,  376  ;  his  marriage,  384,  401  ; 
character,  401  ;  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Bishop  of  Alet,  403  ; 
conversion,  403  ;  treatises,  404  ; 
rules  for  his  household,  404 ; 
death,  405 

Conti,  Princesse  de,  her  marriage, 
401  ;  appearance,  402  ;  attach- 
ment to  her  husband,  403  ;  char- 
acteristics, 403 ;  dislike  of  De 
Cosnac,  403  ;  conversion,  403  ; 
her  life  of  devotion,  406 ;  ill- 
health,  406  ;  qualities,  406  ;  edu- 
cation of  her  boys,  407 ;  death, 
407 

Corneille,  379 

Cornet,  submits  seven  propositions 
to  the  Sorbonne  for  examination, 
229 

Cosnac,  Abbe  de,  402 
Courtenvaux,  Marquis  de,  393 
Cousin,  M.  Victor,  his  studies  on 
the    life    of   the    Duchesse    de 
Longueville,    57   note,   374,   378, 
383  ;  Jacqueline  Pascal,  204  ;  on 
the  liberties  taken  with  the  text 
of  Pascal's  PensJes,  269  ;  his  book 
on  Mme  de  Sable,  393,  394,  396 
Coustel,  170 

Crequi,  Due  de,  Ambassador 
Extraordinary  to  the  Papal 
Court,  305 

Croix,  Charles  de  la,  head  of  the 
Cistercian   Order,   8 ;   his  char- 
acter, 1 54  ;  death,  1 54 
"  Croix,  Mere  de  la,"  at  Maubuis- 
son, 31 

Cyr,  Abbey  of  St,  6 
Cyran,  M.  de  St,  24  ;  his  influence 
on  Port  Royal,  48 ;  friendship 
with  M.  d'Andilly,  48  ;  director 
of  Port  Royal,  64,  71  ;  of  the 
Institut  du  Saint  Sacrement,  64  ; 
persecution  against,  67 ;  char- 
acteristics, 71,  80,  135  ;  career, 
71  ;  friendship  with  Jansenius, 
71  ;  with  the  Arnaulds,  72  ;  rela- 
tions with  Richelieu,  73  ;  refusal 
of  Bishoprics,  73 ;  advice  to 
Marie  Claire,  78  ;  axioms,  79 ; 
arrest,  80,  95  ;  his  letter  on  the 
death  of  Marie  Claire,  8 1  ;  rela- 
tions with  Claude  Lancelot,  81, 


INDEX 


493 


84 ;  influence  on  M.  Le  Maitre, 
87 ;  his  views  on  true  inward 
religion,  88  ;  independence,  88  ; 
views  of  the  priestly  office,  91  ; 
his  gift  for  expounding  the  Bible, 
92  ;  freedom  from  self-conscious- 
ness, 93  ;  on  contrition,  94,  106  ; 
treatment  in  prison,  96,  105,  107; 
papers,  97  ;  Admonitio  ad  1m- 
peratorem,  97  ;  on  his  imprison- 
ment, 98,  114;  literary  style,  99  ; 
his  penitents  or  "Solitaires," 
loo ;  examination,  105  ;  acts  of 
kindness  to  his  fellow-prisoners, 
107  ;  fondness  for  children,  107, 
112;  letters,  107-118;  religious 
views,  107-118;  on  the  death  of 
Cardinal  Richelieu,  126  ;  release 
from  prison,  127  ;  return  to  Port 
Royal,  128 ;  his  thanksgiving, 
128  ;  his  meeting  with  Le  Maitre, 
129 ;  criticisms  on  the  Fathers, 
130 ;  rules  for  the  life  of  study, 
131  ;  on  the  education  of 
children,  132,  170;  advice  to  M. 
Singlin,  133  ;  method  of  prepar- 
ing his  sermons,  134  ;  attack  of 
the  Jesuits,  134  ;  his  death,  135  ; 
mutilation,  135  ;  funeral,  135  ; 
his  catechism,  143 

Cyran,  Abbey  of  St,  life  at,  262  ; 
suppressed,  433 

Gyres,  Lord  St,  his  book  on  Fene- 
lon,  194  note 

DALGAIRNS,  Father,  extract  from 
his  book  on  Holy  Communion,  182 

Dante,  lines  from,  249 

Daubrai,  M.,  the  magistrate,  his 
examination  of  Mere  Angelique, 
253  ;  at  Chesnai,  253  ;  his  orders 
to  disperse  the  Port  Royalists, 
289  ;  letter  to  M.  d'Andilly,  290 

Deruptis,  M.,  his  escape  from  the 
Abbey  of  Maubuisson,  29 

Descartes,  his  relations  with  Pascal, 
211 

Dijon,  59 

Dodart,  M.,  454 

Domat,  M.,  his  friendship  with 
Pascal,  223 

Droz,  M.,  271,  272 

Dunois,  Count  of,  387 

Ecoles,  les  Petites,  life  at,  143, 
171  ;  broken  up,  287 


Ekenfort,  Baron  d',  at  Vincennes, 
119 

Emeri,  controller-general,  189  ;  im- 
position of  oppressive  taxes,  189 

Enghien,  Louis  de  Bourbon,  Due 
d',  376  ;  his  unhappy  love  affairs, 
380 

Epernon,  Duchesse  d',  391 

Espinoy,  M.  d',  joins  the  Solitaires, 
353  ;  on  the  death  of  his  mother, 

354 

Esprit,  Jacques,  402 
Esprit,  Pere,  319 
Estrees,  Gabrielle  d',  7 
Estrees,    Madame   d',    Abbess   of 

Maubuisson,   7  ;    her  character, 

29  ;   scene  on  her  ejection,  30 ; 

her    raid   on    Maubuisson,    40 ; 

expels     Mere     Angelique,     42 ; 

flight,    44 ;    attempts   to  regain 

her  position,  45 
Etienne  du  Mont,  Church  of  St, 

477 

Euphemie,  Soeur,  217;  her  rules 
for  the  education  of  children, 
218  ;  see  Pascal,  Jacqueline 

Eustace,  M.,  Cure  of  Fresnes, 
appointed  confessor  to  Port 
Royal,  449,  468  ;  his  Cos  de  Con- 
science^ 468 

Eveques,  Vies  des  quatre^  368 

Exeter,  Bishop  of,  his  definition  of 
Probabilism,  244  ;  Regnum  Dei, 
275 

FAITH,  Divine,  and  human,  man- 
date on  the  distinction  between, 
312 

Falaire,  Sister  Agnes  de  Marie 
de  la,  51 

Fargis,  Marie  de  Sainte  Madeleine 
du,  299;  her  Profession,  169; 
receives  the  Sisters,  343  ;  elected 
Abbess  of  Port  Royal,  410,  453  ; 
her  illness,  438  ;  saintliness,  455  ; 
blindness,  455 

Fargis,  Marquis  du,  299  note 

Faugere,  M.,  269  ;  Introduction  aux 
Lettres  de  la  Mtre  Agnes,  266, 
411 

Feron,  Isabelle  Le,  her  death,  469 

Ferte-Milon,  101,  425 

Feuquieres,  M.  de,  119 

Flavie,  Soeur,  225  ;  her  application 
of  the  Holy  Thorn,  254  ;  dis- 
simulation, 327 


494 


INDEX 


Fontaine,  Eugenie  de,  appointed 
to  reform  Port  Royal,  325  ;  in- 
stalled Mother  Superior,  326 

Fontaine,  Nicholas,  his  Memoirs 
of  Port  Royal,  102,  138;  on  the 
meeting  of  M.  de  St  Cyran  and 
Le  Maitre,  129  ;  characteristics, 
138;  at  Port  Royal,  138;  his 
meeting  with  M.  d'Andilly,  141  ; 
on  his  retirement,  148  ;  the  re- 
ception of  M.  Manguelen  by  the 
Solitaires,  1 50  ;  on  the  life  of  the 
Solitaires,  195  ;  on  the  character 
of  M.  Bagnols,  258 ;  arrested, 
362 ;  confined  in  the  Bastille, 
363  ;  shares  the  same  room  with 
M.  de  Saci,  364 ;  his  life 
in  prison,  365 ;  released,  366, 
372 

Fontis,  M.  de,  the  "Chevalier  du 
Guet,"  44 

Fort,  M.  Arnauld  du,  5 

Fosse,  Mme  du,  under  the  direction 
of  Le  Tourneux,  445 

Fosse,  M.  Pierre  Thomas  du,  his 
Memoirs,  141-143,  4*3,  445  ; 
education,  143 ;  at  school  at 
Port  Royal,  170;  his  relations 
with  Le  Maitre,  257  ;  at  the 
Abbey  of  St  Cyran,  262  ;  return 
to  Port  Royal,  263  ;  sorrow  on 
the  death  of  Le  Maitre,  263 ; 
arrested,  361-363 ;  confined  in 
the  Bastille,  363 ;  released,  363  ; 
retires  to  Normandy,  363 ;  ac- 
count of  his  brother's  marriage, 
413  ;  his  death,  458 

Fosse,  Pierre  du,  his  death,  461  ; 
characteristics,  461,  462  ;  family 
affection,  461 

Fouquet,  M.,  his  tragic  fate,  326 

Francis  I.,  i 

Frequente  Communion,  publication, 
178  ;  views  on,  184 

Fresle,  Dame  de,  142,  262 

Fromageau,  Abbe,  his  visit  of  in- 
spection to  Port  Royal,  433 

Fronde,  war  of  the,  meaning  of 
the  term,  188  ;  temporary  peace 
signed,  190;  outbreak  of  the 
second  war  or  "Guerre  des 
Princes,"  199  ;  concluded,  200  ; 
history  of  the,  383 


Genevieve,  Mere,  appointed  Abbess 
of  the  Institut  du  Saint  Sacre- 
ment,  67 

Genevieve  d'  PIncarnation,  So3ur, 
340,  34i 

Geudeville,  President  de,his  protest 
against  the  removal  of  pupils 
from  Port  Royal,  436 

Gif,  Abbess  of,  158 

Gondi,  Jean  Francois  de,  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  60 ;  prohibits 
M.  Singlin  from  preaching,  196  ; 
at  Port  Royal,  196 

Gonzague,  Marie  de,  Queen  of 
Poland,  298  ;  see  Poland 

Gore,  Bishop,  extract  from  his  book, 
The  Body  of  Christ,  181  ;  on 
authority  in  the  Church,  317 

Grammont,  Comtesse  de,  467 

Grange,  M.  de  la,  Superior  of  Port 
Royal,  454 

Grenet,  M.,  Superior  of  Port  Royal, 
440  ;  his  death,  454 

Grenoble,  Bishop  of,  431 

Guardian,  extract  from  an  essay  in 
the,  277 

Guelphe,    M.  Ernest,  at   Brussels, 

459 

Guemenee,  Prince  de,  105 

Guemenee,  Princesse  de,  185 ;  under 
St  Cyran's  direction,  105,  147, 
178 ;  her  affection  for  Anne 
Eugenie,  225  ;  letter  from  Mere 
Angelique,  228  ;  her  criticism  of 
Rochefoucauld's  Maxims,  398 

"Guerre  des  Princes,"  outbreak 
of,  199 

Guet,  M.  du,  401,  420  ;  at  Brussels, 

459 

Guichet,  Journee  du,  16 
Guillebert,  M.,  262  ;  under  M.  de 

St  Cyran's  direction,  105  ;  letters 

from    him,     107-112;    Cure     of 

Rouville,  142 
Guise,  M.  le  Due  de,  381 
Guyon,   Mme   de   la    Roche,    her 

second  marriage,  235 
Guyon,  Mdlle  de  la   Roche,  228  ; 

at  Port   Royal,   236 ;    marriage, 

236 
Guyon,  M.  de  la  Roche,  killed  in 

battle,  235 
Guyot,  M.,  170 


GALLOT,  M.,  22 
Gaudon,  M.,  92 


HABERT,  M.,  Bishop  of  Vabres,  229 
Hamel,  M.,  200 


INDEX 


495 


Hamon,  Jean,  physician  to  Port 
Royal,  200 ;  his  epitaph  on  M. 
de  Bagnols,  259  ;  forced  to  retire 
from  Port  Royal,  328  ;  his  help 
to  the  Sisters,  345,  350  ;  spiritual 
thoughts,  346 ;  treatise  on  the 
Principles  of  Conduct  in  Defence 
of  Truth,  347  ;  his  Pratique  de 
la  Priere  Continuelle,  347-350 ; 
remains  at  Port  Royal,  438 ; 
epitaph  on  M.  de  Saci,  450  ;  his 
death,  454  ;  character,  454 

Harlai  de  Champvallon,  M.,  Arch- 
bishop of  Rouen,  appointed  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  432  ;  his  character, 
432 ;  at  Port  Royal,  434 ;  dis- 
persal of  the  pupils,  434,  436  ; 
the  confessors,  435  ;  letter  from 
Antoine  Arnauld,  439  ;  his  death, 
465 

Harlai,  Mme  de,  appointed  Abbess 
of  Port  Royal  de  Paris,  465 

Hauranne,  Jean  du  Vergier  de, 
Abbe  de  St  Cyran,  48  ;  see  Cyran 

Havet,  M.,  269 

Henri  III.,  2 

Henri  IV.,  4,  7  ;  his  passion  for 
Charlotte  de  Montmorency,  375  ; 
assassination,  376 

Henry  VIII.,  King  of  England,  I 

Hermant,  M.,  456 

Hermite,  M.  1',  441 

Hilaire,  M.,  351 

Hillerin,  M.,  138 

Holy  Communion,  views  on,  93  ; 
controversy  on,  179-183 

Holy  Thorn,  miracle  of  the,  254 

INNOCENT  X.,  Pope,  on  the  dispute 
of  the  Five  Propositions,  230 ; 
his  Bull  condemning,  231,  234, 

367 

Innocent  XL,  Pope,  431  ;  his 
attempt  to  extirpate  the  doctrine 
of  Probabilism,  245 

Innocent  XII.,  Pope,  432 

"  Intendants  des  Finances,"  mean- 
ing of  the  term,  5  note 

Isabelle  Agnes,  Sister,  mistress  of 
the  novices  at  Maubuisson 
Abbey,  34 

JACQUES  du  Haut  Pas,  Church  of 

St,  135 
Jansenists,     character     of     their 

theology,     231  ;     true     Catholic 


principles,    328 ;    result    of   the 
Peace  of  the  Church,  371 

Jansenius,  Cornelius,  his  opinion  of 
Le  Chapelet  Secret,  63  ;  friend- 
ship with  M.  de  St  Cyran,  71  ; 
Augustinus,  98  ;  characteristics, 
99  ;  school  of  thought,  229  ;  pro- 
positions, 229  ;  doctrine,  295  ; 
propositions  condemned,  231, 
307,  309,  3.28,  367 

Jean,  Angelique  de  St,  Memoirs 
pour  servir  a  Vhistoire  de  Port 
Royal,  8,  453  ;  on  the  death  of 
Mere  Genevieve,  158;  at  Port 
Royal,  252  ;  examination  by 
the  priests,  297 ;  refutes  the 
charges,  297  ;  interview  with  the 
Archbishop  on  signing  the 
Formulary,  313  ;  removed  from 
Port  Royal,  324  ;  her  character, 
333,  442,  453  ;  notes  on  the  life 
of  Mere  Angelique,  333  ;  sent  to 
the  Convent  of  the  Annunciation, 
333  ;  treatment,  334 ;  confined 
in  her  cell,  335-338  ;  criticism  on 
Mme  de  Rantzau,  338  ;  taken  to 
Port  Royal  des  Champs,  341 
dislike  of  Mme  de  Sable,  397 
Prioress  of  Port  Royal,  410 
memoir,  Portrait  de  la  Mere 
Catherine  Agnes,  410  ;  dislike  of 
Nicole,  418;  elected  Abbess  of 
Port  Royal,  433  ;  examined  by 
Abbe  Fromageau,  433 ;  her 
appeal  to  the  Pope  on  the 
removal  of  pupils,  437  ;  letters  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  441, 
442  ;  intellectual  gifts,  442  ; 
re-elected  Abbess,  444  ;  illness, 
452  ;  death,  453  ;  Conferences  on 
the  Rule,  453 

Jean,  Sister  Catherine  de  St,  her 
death,  198 

Jenkins,  Francis,  dismissed  from 
Port  Royal,  325 

Jesuits,  4  ;  their  attack  on  M.  de 
St  Cyran,  134  ;  opinion  oiLaFre- 
quente  Communion,  184  ;  attack 
on  Pascal,  210  ;  slanders  against 
the  Port  Royal  nuns,  225  ;  char- 
acter of  their  theology,  231,  232  ; 
publication  of  their  Almanack, 
234  ;  system  of  casuistry,  240  ; 
thesis  of  the  Infallibility  of  the 
Pope,  307 

Joseph,  Pere,  73,  96  ;  his  death,  104 


496 


INDEX 


Joseph,  Jeanne  de  St,  60 

Joseph,   Mere    Madeleine    de    St, 

Prioress      of      the       Carmelite 

Convent,  378 
Juge,    Fancoise  de  St  Agathe   le, 

441 

KITCHIN,  Dean,  on  the  death  of 
Cardinal  Richelieu,  125 

LALANE,  Abbd  de,  his  discourse, 

the  Ecrit  a  trots  Co  tonnes,  230 
Lambert,  St,  cemetery  of,  477 
Lancelot,  Claud,  his  Memoirs  of 
M.  de  St  Cyran,  60  note,  73,  74, 
81  ;  character,  81  ;  at  the  Com- 
munity of  St  Nicholas,  81  ;  his 
meeting  with  M.  de  St  Cyran, 
83  ;  leaves  St  Nicholas,  84 ;  at 
Port  Royal,  92 ;  his  views  on 
Holy  Communion,  93 ;  on  the 
imprisonment  of  M.  de  St  Cyran, 
96  ;  at  Ferte-Milon,  101  ;  illness, 

103  ;  at  the  Abbey  of  St  Cyran, 
104,  408  ;  return  to  Port  Royal, 

104  ;  his  visit  to  M.  de  St  Cyran 
on  his  release  from  prison,  127  ; 
vocation     for     teaching,      170 ; 
embassy  to   the  Archbishop  of 
Paris,  310  ;  his  method  of  teach- 
ing the  Princesse  de  Conti's  sons, 
406  ;  retires  to  Quimperle,  433  ; 
death,  433 

Landes,  M.  des,  142,  207 

Landres,  M.  des,  262 

Langres,  M.  de,  55  ;  his  character, 
57,  60  ;  spiritual  director  of  Mere 
Angelique,  58 ;  persecutions, 
60  ;  treatment  of  M.  de  St  Cyran, 
66  ;  illness,  66 

Larroumet,  M.  Gustave,  his  book 
on  Racine,  425,  429 

Laubardement,  his  cross-examina- 
tion of  the  "  Soltaires,"  100 

Laurent,  M.  de  Saint,  in  command 
of  the  siege  of  Port  Royal,  344 

Laval,  Guy  de,  killed  in  battle,  394 

Lavisse,  M.,  his  Histoire  de  France, 
115  note;  his  criticism  on  Louis 
XIV.,  459. 

Lear,  Mrs  Sidney,  The  Revival  of 
Priestly  Life  in  France ;  21  note, 
57  note,  62  note 

Lemattre,  M.,  Racine  et  Port  Royal, 
429 

Lescot,   Jacques,   Professor  of  the 


Sorbonne,  his  examination  of  M. 
de  St  Cyran,  105 

Lesdiguieres,  Duchesse  de,  404, 
438 

Liancourt,  M.  le  Due  de,  106,  196, 
325 ;  his  character,  235  ;  adopts 
the  life  of  religion,  235  ;  treat- 
ment at  confession,  236 

Liancourt,  Jeanne  de  Schomberg, 
Duchesse  de,  235,  408 ;  her 
marriage,  235  ;  character,  235  ; 
counsels  to  her  daughter  on  her 
marriage,  236 

Ligny,  Mere  Agnes  Madeleine  de 
St  Ange  de,  66  ;  makes  her  Pro- 
fession, 74 ;  on  the  life  led  by 
the  Community,  75  ;  elected 
Abbess  of  Port  Royal  de  Paris, 
303  ;  removal,  324 

Lindo,  M.,  his  character,  154; 
death,  154 

Logique,  la,  work  on,  175  ;  authors, 

175 

Longueville,  Due  de,  56,  119;  his 
marriage,  380  ;  character,  380  ; 
at  Madgeburg,  381  ;  death,  386, 

390 

Longueville,  Duchesse  de,  56  note; 
on  the  conversion  of  "De  la 
Serre,"  166 

Longueville,  Anne  Genevieve  de 
Bourbon,  Duchesse  de,  190 ; 
under  the  direction  of  M. 
Singlin,  357,  386  ;  M.  de  Saci, 
361,  390 ;  her  efforts  to  restore 
peace,  370,  371,  390;  friendship 
for  Port  Royal,  374,  386 ;  her 
parents,  374 ;  birth,  376  ;  child- 
hood, 376  ;  marriage,  380  ;  birth 
of  her  son,  381  ;  infatuation  for  M. 
de  Rochefoucauld,  382  ;  revival 
of  Carmelite  teaching,  384 ; 
penitence,  384  ;  reconciliation 
with  her  husband,  384 ;  her 
friends,  384  ;  acquaintance  with 
Mere  Angelique,  385  ;  wise 
counsels  from  M.  Singlin,  386- 

389  ;  death  of  her  husband,  386, 

390  ;  character  of  her  sons,  387  ; 
loss  of  her  son,  391  ;  her  death, 
391,    431  ;   characteristics,   391  ; 
friendship  with    Mme  de  Sable*, 
399  ;  appointed  guardian  to  the 
Princesse  de  Conti's  sons,  407 

Longueville,  Mdlle  de,  119 
Lorraine,  Marguerite  de,  74 


INDEX 


497 


Louis  IX.,  375 

Louis  XIII.,  5  ;  his  marriage,  23  ; 
orders  to  reform  the  Abbey  of 
Maubuisson,  29 ;  gives  per- 
mission to  establish  the  Institut 
du  Saint  Sacrement,  60  ;  releases 
Richelieu's  prisoners,  127 ;  his 
death,  134 

Louis  XIV.,  his  dislike  of  the  Port 
Royalists,  287,  326  note,  344,  416, 
432,  459  ;  orders  to  disperse  the 
nuns,  289,  472 ;  his  relations 
with  the  Papal  Court,  305  ;  fatal 
egoism,  344  ;  attentions  to 
Princesse  de  Conti,  402  ;  recep- 
tion of  M.  d'Andilly,  409  ;  decree 
PArret  du  Camp  de  Nineve,  431  ; 
order  to  demolish  the  buildings 
of  Port  Royal,  477 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  founder  of  the 
Jesuits,  240 

Luines,  Constable  de,  145,  193 

Luines,  Due  de,  at  Port  Royal,  193 

Luines,  Mme  de,  at  Port  Royal, 
193  ;  her  death,  194  ;  children, 
194 ;  pious  reflections,  194 ; 
epitaph,  194 

Luines,  Mdlle  de,  her  departure 
from  Port  Royal,  291 

Luzanci,  Mdlle  de,  enters  Port 
Royal,  353  J  her  death,  467 

Luzanci,  M.  de,  150,  449  ;  his 
career,  152  ;  enters  Port  Royal, 
152;  character,  152;  return  to 
Port  Royal,  409  ;  death,  454 

Lys,  Abbey  of,  reform,  49 

MABILLE,  M.,  470 

Macquet,  M.,  confessor  to  a 
Religious  House  at  Boulogne, 
68  ;  letters  of  advice  from  Mere 
Angelique,  68 

Magny,  Church  of,  477 

Maintenon,  Mme  de,  472 

Maitre,  Antoine  Le,  83  ;  his  fame 
as  an  advocate,  85  ;  withdrawal 
from  his  profession,  87  ;  retire- 
ment at  Port  Royal,  87,  89 ; 
cross-examination,  100  ;  at  Ferte- 
Milon,  101  ;  return  to  Port 
Royal,  104 ;  his  study  of 
Hebrew,  129,  149;  delight  at 
seeing  M.  de  St  Cyran,  129; 
treatment  of  Fontaine,  140; 
dislike  to  be  under  the  direction 
of  his  brother,  149,  192  ;  recep- 


tion of  M.  Manguelen,  150;  on 
the  life  of  the  Solitaires,  234  ; 
his  relations  with  Du  Fosse,  257  ; 
death,  262,  263 ;  renewal  of 
conversion,  262 

Maitre,     Catherine     Le,     4 ;    her 
unhappy     marriage,     17     note; 
separation    from    her    husband, 
38  ;  vow  of  perpetual  widowhood, 
39 ;   her  children,    85  ;  at   Port 
Royal,  119;  becomes  a  novice, 
120  ;  her  death,  198 
Maitre,  Charles  Le,  85 
Maitre,  Mme  Le,  her  death,  438 
Maitre,  M.  Le,  separation  from  his 

wife,  17  note,  38 

Manguelen,  M.,  appointed  director 
of  the   "Solitaires,"    140,    150; 
death,  151  ;  his  friendship  with 
M.  de  Beaupuis,  456 
Mantes,  475 

Marca,     M.     de,     Archbishop    of 
Toulouse,  appointed  Archbishop 
of  Paris,  304  ;  his  death,  304 
Marcel,  M.,  390 
Mares,  Pere  des,  231 
Marguerite,    Soeur,   her  examina- 
tion by  the  priests,  298 
Marguerite  Angelique,  Sister,  her 
testimony  to    M&re    Angelique, 
27 

Marguerite  de  Sainte  Gertrude, 
Sceur,  refuses  to  sign  the 
Formulary,  313  ;  her  death,  351 
Marie  des  Anges,  Sceur,  mistress 
of  the  novices  at  Lys,  50 ; 
return  to  Port  Royal,  51,  167; 
appointed  Abbess  of  Maubuisson, 
56 ;  resignation,  165  ;  her  gift 
for  winning  souls,  166  ;  illness, 
258,  264  ;  elected  Abbess  of  Port 
Royal,  226,  264  ;  renewal  of  con- 
version, 264  ;  death,  265  ;  char- 
acteristics, 265 

Marie  Claire,  Sister,  4  ;  see  Arnauld 
Marie  Dorothee  de'  1' Incarnation, 

Prioress  of  Port  Royal,  252 
Marie,    Convent    of   Sainte,    339, 

384 
Marignier,    M.,   confessor  of  Port 

Royal,  468 
Marion,   Catherine,  her  character, 

3  ;  early  marriage,  3  ;  see  Arnauld 
Marion,  M.,  his  character,  3 
Marsillac,  Prince  de,  his  marriage, 

236 


498 


INDEX 


Marsillac,  Francois,  Prince  de,  382  ; 
see  Rochefoucauld 

Marthe,  M.  de  Sainte,  on  the 
education  of  children,  172  ;  his 
letter  to  the  Archbishop  of  Paris, 
on  the  persecutions  of  the  nuns, 
311,  329  :  Apologie  pour  les 
Religieuses  de  Port  Royal,  329, 
368  ;  his  characteristics,  358 ; 
Letters,  358,  359  ;  inwardness, 
359 ;  in  hiding,  368  ;  confessor 
to  Port  Royal,  410  ;  death,  456 

Martin,  Henri,  Histoire  de  France, 
i,  125,  190  note,  305,  376,  377 

Martinozzi,  Anne  Maria,  her 
marriage,  384,  401  ;  see  Conti, 
Princesse  de 

Mason,  Rev.  Dr,  extract  from  his 
Faith  of  the  Gospel,  233 

Maubuisson,  Abbey  of,  6  ;  its  char- 
acter, 7  ;  evil  reputation,  29 ; 
ejection  of  the  Abbess,  30 ;  re- 
forms of  Mere  Angelique,  32-34  ; 
character  of  the  nuns,  32  ;  num- 
ber of  novices,  33 ;  rule  of 
silence  established,  24 

Maure,  Mme  de  S.,  her  influence 
over  Mme  de  Sable,  399  ;  death, 

399 

Mazarin,  Cardinal,  234  ;  his  policy, 
189  ;  views  of  Port  Royal,  250 

Meaux,  Bishop  of,  67 

Medici,  Catherine  de,  2 

Medici,  Queen  Marie  de,  57,  375  ; 
her  exile  at  Cologne,  125 

Melthide,  Sceur,  retracts  her  signa- 
ture, 327 ;  removed  from  Port 
Royal  de  Paris,  327 

Melun,  49 

Mesnil,  Mere  Anastasie  du,  Prioress 
of  Port  Royal,  471  ;  refuses  to 
sign  the  Bull,  475  ;  sent  to  the 
convent  of  the  Ursulines  at  Blois, 

475 

Michaut,  M.,  269 
Moberly,  Dr,  Reason  and  Religion, 

177^^,271,272 
Moine,  M.  le,  appointed  confessor 

to  Port  Royal,  443 
Mole,      M.     Matthieu,     127 ;      his 

efforts  to  get   M.   de  St  Cyran 

released,  97  ;    reception  of  him, 

128;  President  of  the  Parlement, 

1 88,  190 
Molina,  his  treatise,  The  Harmony 

of  Free  Will  and  Grace,  230 


Molinier,  M.,  269 

Molinist  school  of  thought,  230 

Monmouth,Duke  of,  at  Chesnai,  171 

Mons,  439 

Mont,  M.  Akakia  du,  confessor  to 

Port  Royal,  294 
Montalembert,   extract    from    Les 

Moine s  d*  Orient,  408 
Montbazon,  Mme  de,  380,  381,  399 
Montglat,  Mdlle  de,  291 
Montmorency,  Anne  de,  374 
Montmorency,    Charlotte    de,   her 

marriage,  374 
Montmorency,  Due  de,  beheaded, 

377 
Montmorency,  Duchesse  de,  383  ; 

Superior  of  the  Convent  of  Sainte 

Marie  at  Moulins,  384 
Montpelier,  siege  of,  57 
Moreau,  M.,  150 
Moulins,  Marie  des,  425 
Mothe,  Jean  de  la,  2 
Mothe,  Castle  La,  I  note 
Motteville,  Mme  de,  her  Memoirs, 

1 88,   250;   on  the  Princesse  de 

Conde,    374 ;    on    the    Due  de 

Rochefoucauld,  383 

NAIN,  Dom  Pierre  Le,  458,  463 

Nain,  M.  Le,  190 ;  Maitre  des 
Requetes,  144  ;  his  sons,  144 

Nemours,  Duchesse  de,  119  note; 
her  Memoirs,  382 

Newman,  Cardinal,  extract  from 
his  Apologia,  273 

Nicholas,  community  of  St,  81 

Nicole,  Jean,  417 

Nicole,  Pierre,  170 ;  his  book  on 
Logic,  175  ;  on  the  distinction 
between  Divine  and  human 
faith,  312 ;  his  letter  on 
Excommunication,  367  ;  Sur 
VHe"resie  Imaginaire,  368 ;  in 
hiding,  368  ;  his  birth,  417 ; 
literary  works,  417-421  ;  retires 
to  Port  Royal,  417  ;  friendship 
with  Antoine  Arnauld,  417 ; 
La  Perpetuite  de  la  Foi,  418- 
421  ;  Essais  de  Morale,  418  ; 
characteristics,  418-420  ;  love 
of  peace,  419  ;  his  books  against 
the  reformed  faith,  421 

Noailles,  M.  de,  Bishop  of  Chalons, 
appointed  Archbishop  of  Paris, 
466  ;  his  character,  466 ;  result 
of  his  visit  to  Port  Royal,  467  ; 


INDEX 


499 


refuses  permission  to  elect  an 
Abbess,  469  ;  his  sufferings  on 
the  destruction  of  Port  Royal, 

477 

Noel,  Pere,  his  attack  on  Pascal,  2 10 

Nogent,  351 

Noir  de  Saint  Claud,  M.  Le,  the 
last  of  the  Solitaires,  469 ;  con- 
fined in  the  Bastille,  470  ;  death, 
470 

Nordstrandt,  scheme  for  draining, 

423 
Nouet,  Pere,  456  ;  his  opinion  of 

La  Frtquente  Communion,  184  ; 

confessor  at  the  Convent  of  the 

Annunciation,  335 
Noyers,  M.  Sublet  Des,  96 

OLIER,  Jean  Jacques,  21  ;  founder 
of  the  seminary  of  St  Sulpice,  236 

Orleans,  Gaston,  Duke  of,  189  ; 
attempt  to  declare  his  marriage 
null  and  void,  74 

Ormesson,  M.  d',  185 

PALLAVICINI,  231 

Pallu,  M.  Victor,  150  ;  physician  to 
the  Comte  de  Soissons,  153; 
retires  to  Port  Royal,  153  j 
characteristics,  153;  his  death, 
197 

Pamiers,  Bishop  of,  368 

Paris,  Archbishop  of,  his  con- 
demnation of  Brisacier,  226 

Pascal,  Blaise,  his  Lettres  Pro- 
mnciales,  100,  239-249 ;  educa- 
tion, 203  ;  questions,  203  ;  dis- 
covery of  geometry,  204 
treatise  on  Conic  Sections,  204 
ill-health,  204,  208,  223,  268 
sisters,  204  ;  conversion,  208 
prayer,  209  ;  under  the  influence 
of  M.  Singlin,  209 ;  experiments 
in  science,  210 ;  attack  of  the 
Jesuits,  210 ;  relations  with 
Descartes,  211;  death  of  his 
father,  212;  difficulties  over 
Jacqueline's  dowry,  213-217  ; 
Discours  sur  la  Passions  de 
V  Amour )  218  ;  his  second  con- 
version, 219 ;  influence  of  M. 
Singlin's  sermon,  219 ;  life  at 
Port  Royal  des  Champs,  220  ; 
his  essay,  Sur  la  Conversion  (fun 
Pecheur,  221  ;  views  on  religion, 
221,  273-284 ;  on  the  value  of 


Epictetus  and  Montaigne,  222  ; 
conversion  of  his  friends,  223  ; 
style  of  writing,  239  ;  intellectual 
humour,  243  ;  his  vocation  as  a 
spiritual  guide,  260 ;  effect  of 
the  miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn, 
261,  270 ;  his  Pensees,  268 ; 
alteration  of  the  text,  269  ;  char- 
acter of  the  work,  270  ;  method, 
272-275  ;  self-mortification,  284  ; 
death  of  his  sister  Jacqueline, 
285  ;  illness,  285  ;  death,  286, 

309 

Pascal,  Etienne,  202  ;  president  de 
la  cours  des  Aides  de  Clermont, 
202 ;  death  of  his  wife,  203 ; 
love  of  science,  203  ;  his  imag- 
inary offences,  205  ;  appointed 
intendant  of  Normandy,  206 ; 
illness,  207  ;  conversion,  208  ; 
death,  212 

Pascal,  Gilberte,  203  ;  her  devotion 
to  her  sister,  204  ;  marriage,  207  ; 
see  Perier 

Pascal,  Jacqueline,  her  gifts,  204, 
212  ;  taste  for  versifying,  205  ; 
composes  a  play,  205  ;  attack 
of  smallpox,  205  ;  begs  favours 
of  Card.  Richelieu,  206 ;  verses 
on  the  Immaculate  Conception, 
207  ;  desire  to  enter  Port  Royal, 
210  ;  difficulties  over  her  dowry, 
213-217;  her  Profession,  217; 
rules  for  the  direction  of  children, 
217  ;  meditation  on  the  Death 
of  our  Lord,  218  ;  on  the 
miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn,  254  ; 
her  death,  285,  302  ;  signs  the 
Formulary,  294  ;  examination  by 
the  priests,  299 

Passart,  Sceur  Flavie,  225  ;  see 
Flavie 

Pater,  Mr,  his  essay  on  Pascal,  232 

Paul,  Catherine  de  St,  8 

Paul,  Mere  Eustachie  de  St,  22 

Paul,  Vincent  de  St,  21  ;  establishes 
an  order  of  Mission  Priests,  91 

Paul,  Count  de  Saint,  387 

Pavilion,  Nicolas,  Bishop  of  Alet, 
368  ;  see  Alet 

Peace  of  the  Church,  negotiations, 
370;  concluded,  371 

Pense'es,  fragmentary  collection  of, 
268  ;  alteration  of  the  text,  269  ; 
influence,  270  ;  character  of  the 
work,  270 


500 


INDEX 


Perdreau,  Mere  Dorothea,  162 ; 
her  death,  466 

Perefixe,  Hardouin  de  Beaumont 
de,  appointed  Archbishop  of 
Paris,  305  ;  his  interview  with 
Lancelot,  310  ;  on  the  new 
heresy,  310;  anecdote  of,  311 
note;  mandate  on  the  distinction 
between  Divine  and  human  faith, 
312;  at  Port  Royal,  312,  327; 
examination  of  the  Sisters,  313- 

315  ;  discussion  with  Angelique 
de  St  Jean,  313  ;  with  Christine 
Briquet,    314 ;    lectures    to    the 
community,  315,  320  ;  character, 

316  ;    illness,    319  ;    his   arrival 
with  a  guard  at  Port  Royal,  322- 
325  ;  receives  the  new  Superior, 
325  ;  excommunicates  the  Sisters, 

345 

Perier,  Mme  Gilberte,  her  con- 
version, 208  ;  on  the  style  of 
Pascal's  writing,  239 

Perier,  Marguerite,  204 ;  subject 
of  the  miracle  of  the  Holy 
Thorn,  254-256 

Perier,  M.,  204 

Picote,  M.,  his  treatment  of  M.  de 
Liancourt  at  confession,  236 

Picture  of  a  Perfect  and  of  an 
Imperfect  Religious,  411-413 

Poland,  Queen  of,  298 ;  letters 
from  Mere  Angelique,  171,  195, 
228,251,255 

Poligne,  M.,  confessor  to  Port 
Royal,  441  ;  treatment  of  the 
Sisters,  441  ;  removed,  441 

Pomponne,  M.  de,  145  ;  French 
Ambassador  at  the  Court  of 
Sweden,  324 ;  at  St  Germain, 
371  ;  appointed  Secretary  of 
State,  409 ;  dismissed  from  the 
King's  service,  440  note 

Pomponne,  Marquis  de,  his  petition 
to  remove  the  bodies  from  Port 
Royal,  477 

Pons,  Bishop  o/  Saint,  431 

Pontcarre,  Mme  de,  55  ;  enters 
Port  Royal,  56  ;  her  opposition 
to  M.  de  St  Cyran,  74  ;  leaves 
Port  Royal,  75 

Pontchartrain,  M.  de,  473 

Pontchateau,  M.  de,  his  letters 
on  the  Duchesse  de  Longue- 
ville's  character,  391,  392  ;  birth, 
422 ;  career,  422 ;  conversion, 


423 ;    life  at   Port   Royal,   424 ; 

death,  424,  456  ;  character,  424  ; 

obliged  to  leave  Port  Royal,  438 

Pontis,  Sieur  de,  Memoires  of  the, 

236 

Pontoise,  arrival  of  the  nuns  at,  43 
Port  Royal,  Abbey  of,  6;  life  at, 
9  ;  reforms,  13  ;  rule  of  seclusion, 
14  ;  of  silence,  25  ;  reception  of 
the  new  Sisters,  47  ;  removal  to 
Paris,  55  ;  change  in  the  re- 
ligious life  of  the  community, 
58;  under  the  directorship  of 
M.  de  St  Cyran,  71  ;  educational 
fame,  92  ;  change  of  habit,  157  ; 
removal  to  Port  Royal  des 
Champs,  159;  rules  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Sisters,  160,411  ; 
schools,  170  ;  life  of  the  boys, 
172  ;  character  of  the  teaching, 
174,  232,  306 ;  book  on  Logic, 
175  ;  visitation,  187,  295-300  ; 
recruits,  193  ;  outbreak  of  sick- 
ness, 200  ;  slanders  against,  225  ; 
system  of  religion,  240,  264  ;  the 
miracle  of  the  Holy  Thorn,  254  ; 
schools  broken  up,  287  ;  dis- 
persal of  pupils,  288,  290-293, 
434-437  ;  examination  of  Sisters, 
296-300 ;  sign  the  Formulary, 
with  an  explanation,  302 ; 
lectures  from  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris,  315,  320;  acts  of  protest, 
319,  321  ;  sentenced,  320;  grief 
at  departure,  322,  339,  341  ; 
arrival  of  the  nuns  from  the 
convent  of  the  Visitation,  325  ; 
their  principle  of  obedience,  326  ; 
dissensions,  327,  329  ;  return  of 
the  Sisters,  340-343  ;  in  a  state 
of  siege,  344  ;  excommunicated, 
345,  469 ;  appeal  for  a  com- 
munion, 350  ;  illness  and  death 
of  Sisters,  351,  469;  accused  of 
neglect  of  prayer,  360  ;  agree  to 
sign  the  Formulary,  371,  373  ; 
restored  to  freedom,  373  ;  separa- 
tion of  Communities,  373,  470  ; 
the  great  ladies  of,  374-40 1  ; 
characteristic  of  independence, 
416 ;  renewal  of  persecutions, 
430  ;  dispersal  of  confessors, 
435  ;  last  novices  professed,  441  ; 
diminishing  numbers,  448,  467  ; 
last  Abbess  elected,  467  ;  refusal 
to  sign  Pope  Clement  XL's 


INDEX 


501 


Bull,  469  ;  order  for  the  suppres- 
sion, 470  ;  dispersal  of  nuns,  472- 
475  ;  last  service,  474  ;  farewells, 
474,  475  ;  removal  of  bodies, 
477  ;  building  demolished,  477 

Potherie,  M.  de  la,  254 

Priere,  Abbe  des,  101 

Probabilism,  system  of,  244 

Provence,  i 

Provincial  Letters,  character  of, 
239-249 

QUESNEL,  Pere,  at  Brussels,  459  ; 

arrested,  468  ;  escape,  469 
Quimperle,  433 

RACINE,  Jean,  101  note;  on  M.  de 
St  Cyran's  refusal  of  Bishoprics, 
73  ;  at  Port  Royal  school,  171  ; 
on  the  bitterness  of  the  Jesuits 
against  Port  Royal,  227 ;  at 
Chesnai,  253  ;  history  of  Port 
Royal,  306,  428  ;  his  birth,  425  ; 
education,  425  ;  ode  on  the 
coronation  of  Louis  XIV.,  426  ; 
friendship  with  Boileau,  426  ; 
career,  426,  427 ;  ingratitude, 
426  ;  his  play,  Phedre,  427  ; 
quarrels,  427  ;  reconciliation 
with  Port  Royalists,  428  ; 
penitence,  428  ;  marriage,  428  ; 
his  plays,  Athalie  and  Esther ; 
428  ;  death,  429  ;  character,  429  ; 
burial,  477 

Racine,  Louis,  428 

Rambouillet,  Mme  de,  97,  147 

"  Rambouillet,  Hotel  de,"  influence 
of,  147  ;  society,  379 

Ranc£,  Abbe  de,  founder  of  the 
Abbey  of  La  Trappe,  454,  458 

Rantzau,  Mme  de,  333 ;  corre- 
spondence with  Angelique  de  St 
Jean,  337 

Rapin,  Pere,  on  the  death  of  Prince 
de  Conti,  405 

Ravignan,  241 

Reaux,  Tallemant  des,  393  ;  his 
Chronique  scandaleuse,  399 

Rebours,  M.  de,  105  ;  letters  from 
M.  de  St  Cyran,  112  ;  confessor 
to  Port  Royal,  112,  294 

Renan,  on  the  influence  of  M.  de  St 
Cyran,  88  ;  extract  from  his  essay, 
94  ;  his  praise  of  Port  Royal,  430 

"Requetes,  Maitre  des,"  meaning 
of  the  term,  258  note 


Retz,  Cardinal  de,  147  ;  Memoirs, 
1 88 ;  appoints  M.  Singlin 
Superior  of  Port  Royal,  257 ; 
resigns  Archbishopric  of  Paris, 
304  ;  his  visit  to  Port  Royal,  416 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  his  policy,  23, 
126;  Bishop  of  Lu£on,  72;  his 
relations  with  M.  de  St  Cyran, 
73  J  project  of  a  Patriarchate  in 
France,  74 ;  on  attrition,  94 ; 
arrests  M.  de  St  Cyran,  95  ;  his 
persecution  of  the  Solitaires,  100, 
106 ;  illness,  125;  death,  126; 
grants  favours  to  Jacqueline 
Pascal,  206 ;  edicts  against 
duelling,  377 

Ring  and  the  Book,  lines  from,  20 

Riom,  i  note 

Riviere,  M.  de  la,  150 

Roannez,  Due  de,  444  ;  his  friend- 
ship for  Pascal,  212,  223  ;  retires 
to  the  house  of  the  Oratorian 
Fathers,  223 ;  religious  spirit, 
223  ;  his  share  in  preparing  the 
new  edition  of  the  Pensees,  269 

Roannez,  Mdlle  de,  her  wish  to 
enter  Port  Royal,  259 ;  depar- 
ture, 260 ;  marriage,  261 

Robert,  Sister  Euphrasie,  474 

Roche,  Suzanne  du  St  Esprit  de, 
character  of  her  devotions,  68  ; 
appointed  Abbess  of  Maubuisson, 
167 

Rochefoucauld,  Due  de  la,  190 ; 
appearance  and  character,  382  ; 
influence  over  the  Duchesse  de 
Longueville,  382  ;  desertion,  383  ; 
publication  of  his  Memoirs,  385  ; 
his  Maxims,  397  ;  review  on,  398 

Rochelle,  La,  Bishop  of,  394 

Rochelle,  La,  siege  of,  5 

Rohan,  Anne  de,  Princess  de 
Guemenee,  105 

Romanes,  extract  from  Thoughts 
on  Religion,  274 

Romanet,  Catherine  de,  428 

Rospigliosi,  Cardinal,  succeeds  to 
the  Papacy,  370 ;  see  Clement 
IX. 

Rouville,  142 

Roynette,  M.  de  la,  appointed 
Superior  of  Port  Royal,  466 

Russell,  George,  Collections  and 
Recollections,  240  note 

SABATIER,  Pere,  41 


502 


INDEX 


Sable,  Mme  de,  178,  228,  379,  384; 
her  friendship  for  Port  Royal, 
392>  397 ;  characteristics,  392, 
395.  396 ;  fear  of  infection,  393, 
395  J  gifts,  393  ;  her  birth,  393  ; 
marriage,  394 ;  children,  394 ; 
retreats  at  Port  Royal,  394 ;  letters 
from  Mere  Angelique,  394-396  ; 
the  centre  of  a  coterie,  397  ;  re- 
view on  the  Maxims,  398  ;  friend- 
ship for  Mme  de  Longueville, 
399 ;  death,  399 

Saci,  M.  Isaac  de,  85 ;  literary 
tastes,  102  ;  character,  102  ;  joins 
the  Solitaires,  102,  103  ;  his  ill- 
ness, 102,  449 ;  love  for  the 
Bible,  103  ;  translation  of  it,  103, 
364,  450 ;  his  verses,  Enlumi- 
nures,  103  ;  ordained  priest,  151, 
191  ;  director  of  Port  Royal,  151, 
191,  410 ;  his  views  on  the  train- 
ing of  children,  173;  reserve 
and  coldness,  191  ;  opinion  of 
Pascal's  views,  221  ;  grief  at  the 
death  of  his  brother,  264 ; 
arrested,  361-363 ;  confined  in 
the  Bastille,  363 ;  shares  the 
same  room  with  Fontaine,  364  ; 
life  in  prison,  365  ;  released,  366, 
372 ;  director  of  Mme  de 
Longueville,  390 ;  protest 
against  the  removal  of  pupils 
from  Port  Royal,  436  ;  retires  to 
Pomponne,  437 ;  allowed  to 
return,  447  ;  death,  450  ;  funeral, 
450 ;  spirituality  of  his  letters, 
450-452 

Sacrement,  Institut  du  Saint, 
establishment  of,  60 ;  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris,  67  ;  incorporated  into 
Port  Royal,  70,  157 

Saintot,  Mme,  205,  206 

Sales,  Francois  de  St,  Bishop  of 
Geneva,  35 ;  character  of  his 
teaching,  35  ;  visits  to  Maubuis- 
son,  37,  38 ;  advice  to  Mere 
Angelique,  38 ;  visit  to  M. 
d'Andilly,  38  ;  his  character  as 
director,  39 

Santeuil,  M.,  his  epitaph  on 
Antoine  Arnauld,  461 

Sanze,  Count  de,  40 

Saugez,  M.  du,  confessor  to  Port 
Royal,  350 

Savants,  Le  Journal  des,  398 


Savreux,  Sieur,  confined  in  the 
Bastille,  363 

Scaliger,  72 

Schomberg,  Jeanne  de,Duchesse  de 
Liancourt,  235, 379;  see  Liancourt 

Schomberg,  Marechal  de,  235 

Scudery,  George  and  Mdlle,  their 
devotion  to  Mme  de  Longue- 
ville, 379  ;  Le  Grand  Cyrus,  379, 

393 

Seguier,  Chancellor,  67,  87,  193 

Sens,  Archbishop  of,  60,  118;  his 
brochure  against  Le  Chapelet 
Secret,  63  ;  his  efforts  for  peace 
in  the  Church,  370 

Sericourt,  M.  Simon  de,  85  ;  his 
conversion  at  Port  Royal,  90 ; 
letter  to  M.  de  St  Cyran,  90 ;  at 
Fert^-Milon,  101  ;  return  to 
Port  Royal,  104 ;  wish  to  enter 
the  Carthusian  order,  151  ;  his 
death,  197 

Serre,  Dame  de  la,  44  ;  her  con- 
version, 1 66 

Sevigne,  M.  Charles  de,  letter  from 
Mere  Angelique,  293  ;  at  Port 
Royal,  414  ;  his  character,  415  ; 
builds  a  new  cloister,  415 

Sevigne,  Mme  de,  147,  293  ;  on  the 
death  of  Mme  de  Longueville's 
son,  391,  400  ;  on  Louis  XIV.'s 
reception  of  M.  d'Andilly,  409  ; 
her  visits  to  Port  Royal,  414 

Sieur,  Jean  la,  85 

Singlin,  M.  Antoine,  appoints  M. 
Manguelen  director  of  the  Soli- 
taires, 1 50 ;  director  of  the 
Institut  du  Saint  Sacrement,  67, 
91  ;  birth  and  career,  91  ;  con- 
fessor to  the  Solitaires,  101  ;  at 
Ferte-Milon,  101  ;  his  wish  to 
relinquish  his  office,  133  ;  advice 
from  M.  de  St  Cyran,  133  ;  his 
sermons,  195,  210 ;  prohibited 
from  preaching,  196 ;  influence 
on  Pascal,  209,  219  ;  on  Jacque- 
line Pascal's  dowry,  214 ;  ap- 
pointed Superior  of  Port  Royal, 
257  ;  ordered  to  retire  from  his 
office,  289 ;  in  hiding,  292  ;  ill- 
ness, 357;  death,  357,  390: 
characteristics,  357  ;  burial,  358  ; 
director  to  Mme  de  Longueville, 
386  ;  advu  e  to  her,  386-389  ;  in- 
fluence over  M.  de  Pontchateau, 
422 


INDEX 


503 


Smith,  Prof.  George  Adam,  extract 
from  his  Lectures  on  Modern 
Criticism,  275 

Soissons,  Bishop  of,  465 

Soissons,  Count  de,  46,  56  note 

Soissons,  Mme  de,  appointed 
Abbess  of  Maubuisson,  46 

"  Solitaires  "  or  penitents,  their  life 
at  Port  Royal,  100,  155  ;  per- 
secution, 101  ;  ordered  to  leave, 
101,  251  ;  at  Ferte-Milon,  101  ; 
return,  104,  257 ;  reception  of 
M.  Manguelen,  150;  increasing 
numbers,  193,  195  ;  their  life  of 
labour  and  prayer,  195  ;  form 
themselves  into  a  guard,  199 ; 
dispersal,  435 

Souvre,  Madeleine  de,  393 ;  see 
Sable 

"Spanish  Cloister,  Soliloquy  of 
the,"  lines  from,  47 

Strong,  Dean,  extract  from 
Authority  in  the  Church,  317. 

Suireau,  Marie,  enters  Port  Royal, 

5° 
Suireau,  M.,  50 

TACONNET,  M.,  his  death,  454 

"  Taille,"  or  property  tax,  5  note 

Talon,  Pere,  210 

Tard,  convent  at,  59 

Tardif,    Genevieve    Augustin     de, 

elected  Abbess   of  Port   Royal, 

59;  death,  157 
Taxes,    imposition    of  oppressive, 

189 

Tellier,  Le,  Chancellor,  369 
Tellier,  Pere,   confessor  to   Louis 

XIV.,  472 

Tennyson,  Lord,  lines  from,  221 
Testament,  Old  and  New,  transla- 
tion of  the,  103,  364,  450 
Thecle,   Mere  Agnes    de    Sainte, 

425,  428  ;  Abbess  of  Port  Royal, 

445,  466  ;  death,  467 
Therese,  Angelique  de  Sainte,  333 
Thomas,  Mme,  her  conversion,  142 
Thomas,  M.  Gentien,  141  ;  Maitre 

des  Requetes,  141  ;  his  visits   to 

M.  de  St  Cyran,  141  ;  conversion, 

142 
Thurston,    Father,   his   preface   to 

Cor  am  Sanctissimo,  335  note 
Tillemont,  M.  de,  his  ecclesiastical 

history,  144  ;  precocity,  144  ;  at 

Port  Royal  school,  171  ;  obliged 


to  leave,  438  ;  mode  of  life,  462  ; 
relations  with  his  father,  463 ; 
character  of  his  letters,  463 ; 
meditations,  464  ;  illness,  464  ; 
death,  465 

Torricelli,  211 

Touches,  M.  des,  170,  443 

Tourneux,  Nicholas  Le,  401  ; 
appointed  Confessor  to  Port 
Royal,  443  ;  birth,  444  ;  educa- 
tion, 444 ;  takes  Holy  Orders, 
445  ;  character  of  his  preaching, 
445,  446  ;  on  the  Sacraments, 
446 ;  LAnnee  Chretienne,  447, 
448  ;  De  la  Meilleure  Maniere 
d'entendre  la  Sainte  Messe,  447  ; 
retires  to  Picardy,  448  ;  death, 
448 

Trappe,  La,  Abbey  of,  454,  458 

Tremoille,  Mme  de  la,  coadjutor 
at  the  Abbey  of  Lys,  49 ;  in- 
stalled Abbess,  51 

Tronchai,  M.,  La  Vie  et  VEsprit 
de  M.  de  Tillemont,  464 

Troux,  Saint  Jean  des,  258 

Tyrrell,  Father,  241 

ULTRAMONTANE  theory  of  Church- 

manship,  319 
Urban  VIII.,  Pope,  55 
Ursulines,  Convent  of  the,  339 

VALLIERES,  Mdlle  de  la,  retires 
to  the  Convent  at  Chaillot,  353 

Valois,  Sister  Gertrude  du,  refuses 
to  sign  the  Bull,  475  ;  banished 
to  Chartres,  476  ;  death,  476 

Vauclaire,  Abbe,  13 

Vaumaurier,  Chateau  de,  193 

Vazet,    M.,    Maitre   des  Requetes, 

445 

Vertus,  Clarence  de  Bretagne, 
Comte  de,  399 

Vertus,  Mdlle  de,  on  the  direction 
of  M.  Singlin,  357  ;  on  the  con- 
troversy, 369 ;  her  friendship 
with  Mme  de  Longueville,  384  ; 
retires  to  Port  Royal,  391  ;  her 
parents,  399 ;  life  of  devotion, 
399  ;  dependent  position,  400 ; 
delicate  health,  400 ;  novitiate, 
401  ;  directors,  401  ;  illness,  447  ; 
death,  455 

Vigean,  Mdlle  Marthe  du,  380 

Villeneuve,  M.  de,  144 

Vincennes,  96,  107,  118 


504 


INDEX 


Vinet,   M.,  his  Elude  sur  Pascal, 

212,  276,  283 
Visaguet,  M.,  150 
Visitation,  Convent  of  the,  arrival 

of  the  nuns  at  Port  Royal,  325; 

their  principle  of  obedience,  326 
Vitard,  Mme,  101  note 
Vitard,    M.,    takes    the    Solitaires 

under  his  protection,   101,  425  ; 

at  Port  Royal,  104 
Vitry,  Marechal  de,  184 
Voiture,  379 


Vuillart,   M.,   on  the  character  of 
M.  du  Fosse",  462 

WAGGETT,    P.    N.,    extract  from 

Science  and  Faith,  271 
Wakeman,  Ascendancy  of  France, 

5  note,  15  note 

Wert,  General  de,  at  Vincennes,  1 18 
Westphalia,  Peace  of,  189,  381 

ZAMET,  Bishop  of  Langres,  57  ;  see 
Langres 


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